An imaginative way to spend a weekend

It was my oldest friend's idea. She's a member of the The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation (ALPLF) and found out through an email blast that they were presenting Having Our Say, a dramatization of The Delaney Sisters' outstanding memoir, right there in the Union Theater of the Lincoln Museum. Since it's a book she placed in my hands more than a decade ago, it was only fitting that she be the one I see the play with.

So we left for Spingfield after work on Friday night. Went to the Library and Museum on Saturday and saw a pair of fabulous new exhibits: "Packaging Presidents" about two centuries of political campaigns and "The Art of War," a very moving exhibit of almost 200 posters that illustrate how we were in WWI and WWII. Had dinner and returned to the museum after hours for the play. Stopped at the hotel bar for laughs and (believe it or not) a couple pots of tea. Took the train back today, and here I am.

It really wasn't expensive at all. Amtrak to and fro was less than $50. The hotel for two nights was $115 for each of us, but admission to the library and breakfast each day were included. The tickets to the play were less than $20 each.

But it was great fun. My oldest friend really makes me laugh. And I learned a lot. I finally saw the infamous LBJ "Daisy commercial," I was introduced to Belva Lockwood (one of America's first female lawyers and a Presidential candidate back in the 1880s), and saw how much was asked of American households in WWII. It was terrific to see Sarah and Bessie Delaney come to life. They "had their say" when they were 103 and 101 years old, the daughters of slaves, who went on to be New York's first female dentist (Bessie) and a Brooklyn home economics teacher (Sadie). I try to live by their advice: "Of every dollar, we put aside the first 10¢ for the Lord and the second dime for a rainy day."

Plus it's nice to get away: sleep in, eat breakfast that's been prepared for me, have a wildberry martini and laughs with dinner.