Cards 'n Time: Legacy from ancestors

Webster defines legacy as something handed down from an ancestor, predecessor or the past. Each year my son attends a meeting in Washington and takes one of his kids and me with him for me to show my grandchild the U.S. Capitol and convey to them their grandfather’s and nation’s legacy.
This year we lucked out in our timing with the historic election of the first Afro-American U.S. president. The overwhelming majority of federal employees in the District are Afro-Americans, and from their conversation, demeanor, and physical bearing, they displayed their pride in the nation’s choice Nov. 4, 2008.
The nation only recently recognized the bicentennial of the famous Lewis and Clarke expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase, and because my granddaughter was studying it in school, I took her to the rare books room of the Library of Congress to examine books on the topic. We were privileged to examine three 200-year old books by members of the Corps of Discovery — Lewis, Clark [aka Clarke], and Sgt. Patrick Gass.
 In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson sent an emissary to Emperor Napoleon of France with authority to purchase only their port of New Orleans which blocked all U.S. commerce on the Mississippi River. Napoleon, however, was looking for much bigger money than that to finance a war against Great Britain, so he upped the offer and the price to include all land west of the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean! Without the approval of Congress — or the Native Americans — Jefferson bought 500,000,000 acres for 3 cents per acre! With a stroke of a pen Jefferson more than doubled the size of the country. (It was probably the last time the U.S. government made a good procurement deal.)
No one had the foggiest notion of what their president had bought, so in 1803 Jefferson sent out a Corps of Discovery under the command of his Secretary and neighbor back in Virginia., Capt. Meriwether Lewis. The next three years, he, William Clark [aka Clarke], and 28 others walked and rode 7,689 miles in three specially-built boats. They took with them 7 tons of food and 600 pounds of rifle powder and lead. Along the way they killed enough game to provide each man with nine pounds of meat daily. They mapped and described the terrain, the native peoples, flora, and fauna.
Not everyone can go to Washington , but most can make personal journeys of discovery. My fondest memory of my Dad came from such a journey in 1965 when he took me to Guthrie to show me the places of his youth. As we came to a bend in the country road near his boyhood home, he said that more than half a century earlier road runners would always run out from under those bushes and across the road. I silently implored the Lord to provide some road runners. I hardly finished praying when several road runners scampered out of the bushes and across the road! I wouldn’t trade that memory for anything. If you haven’t made a legacy trip with your parents or your kids, do so while you-and they-can.