This reader still likes Ike

I loved the lead on the Ike story and devoured the June 2 article “Ike Still Stands Tall in Abilene,” by Catharine Hamm. Well done.

I was a high school sophomore when he was elected president, and I am grateful to have grown up under him and Harry S. Truman. I hold those two in high regard.

While recently visiting my childhood home in Redwood City, Calif., the current owner asked me, “Who painted ‘I Like Ike’ on the inside of the garage door?” I confessed that it was me, using shoe dye.

There were two little things I respected about Eisenhower: In uniform, he never wore those hat visor decorations known as “scrambled eggs,” which denote any officer who is at least a major (or lieutenant commander in the Navy/Coast Guard). That was just not his style. The other was his public displays of support and care for Mamie: He won my mother’s votes for the way he treated his wife.

The story of Gilbert, the orphan boy, was poignant with a capital P (“Dad’s Stories Resonated,” Departure Points, by Diane Covington-Carter, June 2). Good editor’s choice

Warren Cereghino

Pacific Palisades

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Thank you to Diane Covington-Carter for her moving tribute to her father in Departure Points. There are countless heartbreaking stories of such ordinary decent and amazing men on Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima and elsewhere. A few years ago I had the privilege of meeting the daughter of the British Red Cross nurse who saved my father’s life after a B-17 crash above Aldbury, England, on New Year’s Eve 1943. Like Diane and Gilbert, our hearts and lives will remain connected in honor of our parents.

Renee Vasos Tobin

Rancho Cucamonga

More than rustic

“Rustic” is the word Jay Jones used to describe the cabins at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (“Secluded Views at a Rim Less Traveled,” June 9). No TV or Wi-Fi. … That was the least of my problems.

I would call them cramped, with two single beds, one desk and a rickety chair, two hangers, and a closet-like bathroom you could barely turn around in.

Lighting consisted of a bare light bulb in the ceiling, and if you wanted air, you opened the window, which allowed you to say hello to the people walking on the path right next to it.

It was hot and airless … not something I would never do again...

Barb Pederson

Los Alamitos

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