Last Day
Today is our last day in Galena. Our accommodations are about a quarter mile from the home where U.S. Grant and his family lived. We could walk to the Grant place. It is on a bluff. The elevation affords a grand view of Galena. I consider that the high elevations around the town are sites for 
homes of wealthy, influential families, and also the churches. Religion is the other polarity; divine service and service to commerce are the poles about which a society rotates in normal times.
A few photos of the interior of the Grant home, which is furnished with the 
original furniture, dishes, implements used by the Grants. To my eye the home affords about the same amount of space as one of our middle class homes. However, there was no running water, no electrical service, all conveniences to come in the 20th century. Life in the 19th century involved more manual labor than does our own. The dining room table was portrayed 
as if would have been when the Grants entertained. In the center of the kitchen is the wood-burning step stove. Here well water was boiled for drinking, for cooking and in order to have a weekly hot bath. Meal preparation for entertaining is always an artform. How much more demanding to prepare a meal on a wood burning stove? And a photo of the pantry to the side of the kitchen.
I wanted to remember the picture hanging in the parlor showing the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox. Ulysses S. Grant played his role, honorably fulfilling his duty in four horrific years of war. The war was unavoidable it seems to me, inscribed within the inhumanity of the slave based 
economy. As human beings we are called to offer ourselves to others, honorably, within the impress of circumstances to which we can only respond.
Also, a few pictures of the churches overlooking the business district. They stand mute and 
majestic. Like the grave monuments for God. The ability to think of life in relation to the mythic stories has been lost to us in the 21st century. As a consequence we ourselves are lost. 19th century Americans would have impressed us as quaint, simple minded, genteel folks.
Final photo of colorful pinatas in the front window of a tiny store front on Main Street. The store is La Tienda Mexicana; a reminder that we live in a diverse society and everyone matters.
