Day 21 Davenport, Iowa: Dr. Irene visits her alma mater, Palmer College of Chiropractic

It's been 34 years since I graduated from chiropractic college!  The old Student Union is no longer there.   That's where I met my first husband, Mike (the father of my 3 wonderful sons!).  I met him just a few weeks before graduation  It was Halloween and I was dressed as a cat on my way with a friend to an exercise class in town in which you were to dress in costume. We stopped in to the Student Union before the class. Mike was there -- dressed as a nerd. He didn't make a big impression on me at first.  The next time I saw him was in the campus cafeteria.  He was looking very dapper in a tweed sport jacket.  The rest is history . . . . 

Not much is the same on the campus as it was 34 years ago.

This statue of the founder of chiropractic, D.D. Palmer wasn't there either.  It's in the courtyard, a popular student hangout back when I was there.  Vernon snapped this picture of me "getting adjusted".

This statue represents D.D. Palmer's first adjustment which restored a man's hearing!



A young lady -- current chiropractic student took me on a tour of the campus while Vernon took the truck for an appointment to get the oil changed!

There used to be these sayings of B.J. Palmer (the son of D.D. Palmer) --  the developer of chiropractic profession -- all through the halls of the college.  Now that they are 'modernizing' and growing there are only a fraction of the original sayings around.

There are many improvements since I've been to Palmer such as the addition of business courses and a state of the art gym.

Tour of the Palmer family mansion (adjoining the campus)

This photo was among the hundreds of items of memorabilia in the Palmer mansion of B. J. and Mabel Palmer's accomplishments and world travels.  Among the many accomplishments of B.J. Palmer -- he started the first experimental radio station west of the Mississippi River sometime before 1922.  He used the radio station to advertise and educate people about chiropractic along with broadcasting farm reports, drama and music on Sundays.  Ronald Reagan's first job was as an announcer on his radio station!  He's shown here in his announcing job with Leslie Howard, the actor who played "Ashley" in "Gone With the Wind".

There's that moose again!  (In the Palmer mansion)

Bust of B.J. Palmer a few years before he died.  And a bust -- made from a plaster cast --  of a young Abraham Lincoln -- one of only 9 in the world,  because it was so painful to have a cast made on his face, he never allowed it to be done again!  This is also in the Palmer mansion where Vernon and I took a tour this afternoon.

Lock and Dam 15 on the Mississippi River.  It's on the National Register of Historic Places.  It's the largest roller dam in the world.  It spans between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois.

This tug boat is pushing 10 barges through the lock to go down river.

The Mississippi River was flowing very fast and was so high that it splashed our feet a little when I took this picture.   There was a great amount of flooding this spring in the midwest.


A couple of the Palmer student hangouts in Davenport were still around 35 years later:

"The Filling Station" bar and restaurant had old gas pumps outside and tops of the old gas pumps with different brands of gas displayed above the bar.  My campus guide today said she goes there to eat and study sometimes.

"Whitey's Ice cream" was (and is) the best ice cream in town.

Tomorrow: traveling through Illinois, Indiana and into Ohio.  I'm very glad that Vernon likes to drive!