Bud Hunt
Daily Dunklin Democrat
Flat vs. level. The Moving Wall arrived Friday morning, right on schedule. The Wall had been in Herrin, Ill., the previous week and during that time we had exchanged e-mails and a had a phone conversation about the visit here.
Metz Skelton was kind enough to "shoot a line" at the Delta Fairgrounds when asked by Randy Morgan. The "line" was the proposed site of the Wall, complete with a set of three flags off of the ends. The Jaycees, already known locally for taking care of flags, would be setting them out Friday evening.
As I arrived at the fairgrounds, Roger Montgomery, street superintendent, was already there, being the first one to greet Norris Shears up on his arrival here. The rig which brought the wall to town was much smaller than what several of us anticipated. Shears drove a three-quarter ton truck, pulling a trailer "just an old farm trailer," he said.
The farm trailer had a few modifications to it, but could have been one used to haul watermelons on in these parts. On the trailer were several crates. Actually we were to learn there were two sets of crates, one for panels that made up the east leg of the Wall and an identical set for the 70 panels of the west leg.
Norris was one of the three original guys who started The Moving Wall in California. John Devitt and Gerry Haver actually came up with the idea and hoped to put it together over a weekend. They approached Norris, who at that time owned a silk-screening shop. Like a lot of good ideas, they were to learn there's a lot more involved to make an idea become an actuality.
"It took me until three o'clock in the morning to convince them that they couldn't do what they wanted to do in a weekend," he told me as we watched Danny Davis and his crew from the Parks Department put the Wall together. About a year and a half after that first conversation, the idea of a mobile replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. became a reality and was first exhibited in Tyler, Texas.
Norris' first few minutes in Kennett, Missouri were a bit perplexing, though.
In the handbook sent along to sponsors to help them prepare for an exhibit of The Moving Wall, sponsors are told that it will be necessary to have flat ground on which to erect the Wall. Hey, we're in the Bootheel. That's all we have here is flat ground. When we read that piece of information the only thing that Mayor Charles Brown and I had to decide was which piece of flat ground we wanted to put the Wall on.
Norris explained that what they really mean is level ground. So, while the site at the Delta Fairgrounds is flat, it is hardly table-top level. To erect the Wall at that site was going to require a lot of shimming to get it level.
Panels of the Wall actually sit in a rail that's about an inch deep. Those panels are bolted together and then anchored from the back. Norris later explained that they came up with the idea of a rail when a windstorm blew the Wall down. Even though it is anchored, there was nothing holding the bottom of the panels in and so a hard wind would blow the panels out from the bottom. Thus, the track to set the panels in came about.
Norris figured he was looking at about a four hour job to get the Wall in place because of all the adjustments which would have to be made as it was erected. Norris just hadn't met Danny Davis and his crew from the Parks Department. Those guys turned out and had the Wall set up in just a little over two hours. They had two crews, one setting up the east leg while another worked on the west. Hardly a piece of cake, but these guys went about their business just like they set up mobile walls all day long.
After they finished, they worked right through their lunch hours to get it completed, the next major project was to fix the walkway in front of the Wall.
Originally the idea, it was my idea and a bad one, was to have a mulch walkway in front of the Wall. Mulch would make it look nice and would show the Wall off well against the lush green grass. Bad idea. What I had failed to consider was the accessibility of a mulch walkway for those who might have trouble walking and more especially, for those individuals who might come to see the Wall and need the assistance of a wheelchair. There was also the concern of what rain would do to such a walkway.
So the mulch idea was scrapped. Scrambling around for an alternative we came up a walkway that is particle board covered with Astroturf. Steve Horton at Sains Floor Covering and Ronnie Morgan at Riggs Supply really saved the local newspaper man's neck on that one. The real genius was Harry Crum and his crew putting the walkway down. Harry and his guys went right along like they had been laying carpet in the middle of a field for years. They filled in the area between the Wall and walkway with mulch, we did use a little mulch after all, to hide the shims keeping the Wall level.
One late feature added for the weekend exhibit is the addition of an honor guard that will march in front of the Wall. Members of the VFW and Marine Corps League will take turns walking their post throughout the day. Randy Morgan was out early on Friday and among the many other things he did was to set up the station where the honor guard will march. Danny Silman and the 1137th Military Police unit of the National Guard have provided tents for the week. They were out Friday afternoon getting them set up. The 1137th also handled traffic parking duties for Saturday's opening ceremony.
While all this activity was taking place outside J.C. Counts was busy inside the American Legion building setting up chairs and the stage for the Saturday morning ceremony. Once J.C. got his job finished Jim Baker set the sound system up, by himself.
Setup day wound down with Norris and his helper/navigator wiping the wall off, with clean baby diapers, getting rid of the dust which had accumulated on it. The lights, which were installed by City, Light Gas and Water earlier in the week, were all set to go on when the sun went down. The effect of those lights on the black wall is a sight to see.
By now the opening ceremony is concluded. There will be a brief closing ceremony at 5 p.m. on Friday, after which The Moving Wall will move to its new location, for NorrisÕ sake, one with level ground. Please feel free to visit The Moving Wall during the week I think the experience will surprise you.
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