Channels, Fall 2020

Channels • 20 20 • Volume 5 • Number 1 Page 47 quite poor, and though their life was not lavish or easy, Dwight’s family fostered “the simple virtues of honesty, self- reliance, integrity, fear of God, and ambition.” 5 Ida and David lived lives that emphasized the opportunities and accomplishments to be found in America – lives that were relatively simple and unquestioning, yet open to possibilities. They ingrained in each of their seven sons a strong emphasis on the virtues of hard work and ability, and frequently speculated about the different prospects their futures could hold. Abilene was a town not markedly divided by wealth or social status, but there were small differences by which one could tell another’s station in life. One of Eisenhower’s lifelong friends, Everett E. Hazlett (“Swede”), would later say of Abilene that “there was never any difference between ‘north of the tracks’ and ‘south of the tracks,’” but this was not true. 6 Perhaps the veil of childhood innocence equalizes all in nostalgic memory, but there were differences in Abilene. The Eisenhowers lived on the south side of the tracks, which was the purported “wrong” side. It was the poorer area of town, and perhaps generally looked down upon by more affluent residents, but such distinctions did not matter to the two young boys. Their childhood town was remembered with great fondness and viewed as a place where p eople were judged “by how hard he worked and… by how well she ran her household.” 7 This upbringing and mindset contributed to the self- sufficient and personally motivated person that Dwight D. Eisenhower would later be known as. As Eisenhower grew up, he was dubbed “Little Ike” – the “Ike” came from the first syllable of Eisenhower, and “Little” was employed to distinguish him from his older brother Edgar, who was known as “Big Ike.” 8 He was a scrapper, shown by the fact that he somehow got into a fight nearly every day at school. His fighting spirit partly came from an anti- authoritarian complex stemming from a “difficult life with his father and his seemingly endless, losing competition with Ed,” and partly from the natural spunkiness of a child. 9 His natural interest in the world of academics lay in the area of history, particularly military history. In high school he was a good student and was naturally able to attain good grades without expending a great deal of effort. This natural talent served him well later, when he entered a competitive examination to gain entrance to a service academy (namely, either Annapolis or West Point). 10 He placed second in the competition, and thus was appointed to West Point. He took the entrance examination, passed, and left for the academy in June of 1911. 5 Ibid, 19. 6 Robert Griffith, ed., Ike’s Letters to a Friend, 1941 -1958 (Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1984), 2. 7 Ambrose, Eisenhower: Volume 1 , 26. 8 Ibid, 28. 9 Louis Galambos, Eisenhower: Becoming the Leader of the Free World (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2018), 23. 10 Ambrose, Eisenhower: Volume 1 , 40.