White House Diaries

Thursday, June 30, 1983

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Helicoptered out to Whittier to a high school we’ve recognized as outstanding for excellence in Ed. Presented a flag as symbol of that to student body & townspeople. It was another of our regional seminars with the Excellence in Ed. Commission present. It was a great morning—78% of student body are Hispanic. Back to the hotel & in early afternoon met with Ansel Adams & his wife.—He is the great nature photographer. He has expressed hatred for me because of my supposed stand on the environment. I asked for the meeting. I gave him chapter & verse about where I really stand on the environment & what our record is. All in all the meeting seemed pleasant enough & I thought maybe I’d taken some of the acid out of his ink. Then I read the story of the meeting as he’d given it to the press. I’m afraid I was talking to ears that refused to hear. Nancy went on to the ranch & that evening I went to a $1000 Repub. fund raiser in Long Beach. It was in the huge dome that houses the “Spruce Goose.” That is the experimental plane Howard Hughes built in W.W.II. It was intended to carry 750 troops. It was built entirely of Spruce wood. I had a chance to go through it. Other than a short takeoff from Long Beach harbor at 20 ft. altitude for about 1⁄2 mile with H.H. at the controls it never flew. You can walk erect inside the wings it’s so big. Then Marine 1 to the ranch. Ten minutes too late—just as we arrived fog closed in over the ranch. We flew back to Santa Barbara airport & drove to the ranch.