Arkansas: Out on the Clinton trail

Herald Graphic

The man at the bar at Atlanta Airport asked me, "Where ya head?" I said, "Arkansas".

He raised his eyebrows and blew out his cheeks. I asked him what it was like.

"Let's put it this way," he replied. "Some of the people there have still got tails."

Arkansas is archetypal Nowheresville, rural America. Or, at least, it used to be before Bill Clinton came along. Now nowhere is somewhere.

President Clinton may not have forged a new world order but his presidency has put his home state on the tourist map.

Arkansas didn't have much going for it before him. It was neither part of the deep South nor the mid-West. It was routinely written off as a hick state, full of cross-eyed hillbillies and in-bred rednecks who dated their chickens and took pot shots at passing clean-cut liberals.

The image of Arkansas was of folks sitting on their front porches duellin' banjos and singing songs like Boil Them Cabbages Down. President Clinton has partially delivered Arkansas from this image. It is no longer the premier "joke" state.

Before Bill, all Arkansas could boast was producing more broiler chickens and fewer rocket scientists per capita than any other US state. The most famous thing to have come out of it was the world's biggest watermelon (at 255lb).

So short of home-grown attractions was Arkansas that its official brochure actually boasted of having milk as its state beverage.

Now, greatly impressed with itself for producing a world celebrity who has also written a book, Arkansas has created its own "Bill Clinton Heritage Trail" featuring Bill-related places of interest.

For many, Clinton remains a hero who is living proof that, in modern America, anyone can achieve anything so long as they have the right values and ideas, a great smile and manage to keep a full head of hair well into middle age.

Most people born in Arkansas grow up and run for the state line. Clinton chose to run for political office, becoming the youngest-ever governor at 32.

Everyone in south Arkansas hero-worships Clinton. In the north they worship trout.

Everyone loves him. Everyone except perhaps Ivan, Jason and Lloyd Bright who grew the world-record watermelon. Nobody cares about mutant watermelons any more.

Arkansas now has Hope. Hope is the town where it all began. It is the holiest of holies; a hallowed spot and sacred shrine. It is therefore a major tourist attraction.

The fairytale story of Hempsted County's favourite son began in 1946. The ex-President's birthplace, Chester Hospital on south Main Street, is no longer there, which says much for his vaunted healthcare programme. It is now a funeral home, which says even more.

His two boyhood homes at 117 S. Hervey and 321 W.13th are major landmarks and tourist draws. Busloads of fans visit them every day. Getting a snapshot of yourself leaning up against the picket fence of Arkansas' Church of the Nativity is a must-have photo opportunity.

Here, for many Democrats, is a moment of profound religious intensity. This is where their saviour felt the first stirrings of constructive change and, charged with youthful optimism, where the hope of being made a martyr by Congress first dawned on him. This is where William Jefferson Blyth was also potty-trained and learned to use cutlery. Hope is a place all believers in Bill believe in profoundly.

Wayne and Elaine Johnson own the Presidential Shoppe in Hope. For sale are sax tiepins, face masks, tea mugs, thimbles, official campaign memorabilia, official inauguration paraphernalia, Christmas tree baubles, much sought-after White House stationery, and limited-edition Sox, the Clinton family cat calendars, as well as biographies of Clinton, even one by his ex-cook, which includes revelations like he loves beef enchiladas and fried-potato casserole.

The most prized item in the world's largest collection of Bill Clinton relics is an invitation to his third birthday party.

The most popular souvenir with the public is a "Happy Days Are Here Again!" T-shirt. The worst selling item is "Hillary Rodham Clinton Fan Club" T-shirts. You can even buy "I Love Bill" tattoos to emboss a chosen body part.

In Hope, you can visit the graves of his parents and grandparents, of Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who looked after him after his father died in a car crash and before his mother married Roger Clinton, a local car dealer.

You can play at the local golf club and see his locker.

But the gift shop is the centre of adoration. Elaine, a card-carrying "FOB" (Friend of Bill) does not apologise for her country's fondness for personality cults. She would be shocked that New Zealand's National Party does not produce Don Brash sweatshirts or baseball caps. Or that the Labour Party does not openly market Hail to the Chief boxer shorts carrying Helen's picture.

The Clinton Trail takes you to "significant graves" and houses with Stars and Stripes flags outside them as well as to scenes of keynote speeches, momentous soundbites, extraordinary feats of gladhanding and self-indulgent saxophone solos.

It takes you to his old schools, churches, favourite masonic temples and restaurants. It does not take you anywhere near Whitewater. Or Vietnam.

From Hope it takes you 130km north to Hot Springs, where the budding chief executive moved when he was four. There you do all the sights in a "duck". This is a restored World War II amphibious vehicle which takes you past Clinton's favourite bowling alley and movie theatre, the Malco, where - the toothy guide tells you - he "liked to sit up the front in the middle" and paid to get in with Cola bottle tops.

Your guide fills you with fascinating insights into the great man's personality and private life. He is, you are told among many other things, a "left-handed Leo".

You can also take in Baileys Dairy Treat, formerly the Polar Bar, in which Clinton reputedly spent many of his formative years eating chili cheeseburgers and drinking sodas. For a while it was run by a Vietnamese couple.

Another youthful haunt was McLards restaurant, which produces more than 3000kg of presidentially-endorsed fall-way tender hickory smoke ribs, 950 litres of slaw, 300 handrolled tamales and 950 litres of his favourite sauce every year.

For the price of mild indigestion, owner Scott McLard will tell you about his visit to the White House and the time when "Airforce One stopped on its way to a summit meeting just to stock up on barbecue sauce".

They have many tales about Clinton in Arkansas. The purpose of most seem to be to help you realise that though possessed of supernatural intellectual attributes ("He's easily the cleverest man to be in the White House"), he did find time to eat, drink and abuse his arteries while growing up.

After Georgetown, Clinton went as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford. He returned to become Professor of Law at Fayetteville, where he met and married Hillary.

In 1974, he ran unsuccessfully for governor. In Fayetteville you can visit the D-lux Cafe where he is meant to have engaged in energetic discussions about the future of the world and the future of the US Government. There are also many park benches where he might have once sat.

The end of the Bill Clinton Experience is the Clinton Library in Little Rock, where he was governor for 12 years. It used to be an institute for the blind.

Here you can see a replica of the Oval Room when Clinton was in the White House. You can also visit the YMCA gym where he worked out, and the streets around which he jogged. There are maps so you know where to go and what to look for.

In Little Rock the spin doctors are not so keen to revere Clinton for choosing the path of politics rather than the path of cretinism. For many in mid-America, the distinction between the two is not so apparent.

"He ain't that special," is a common sentiment. He is no Superman. He can't stop cranberry blight."

As one dissenter in dungarees and a distributor cap said over some downhome Hush Puppies and grits: "He still has pains in the chest like any normal American."

CHECKLIST

Getting there: You can join the Clinton trail by flying Air NZ economy class to Los Angeles and then on to Little Rock with Air New Zealand and US Airways or Northwest Airlines.

Further information: The official Arkansas tourist website is tourarkansas.com. It includes details of the recently launched Path of a President tour offered by Little Rock Tours. Clinton's hometown of Hope has information about him here. The William J. Clinton Presidential Centre.