In 1947, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech on the campus of Westminster College in the small town of Fulton, Missouri. He had been invited by former President Harry Truman, a Missouri native, who was also in attendance.

In the 1960′s, the ruins of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, a 12th century Church that had been destroyed in WWII, were relocated and reconstructed on Westminster’s campus.

In 1990, Ronald Reagan was in attendance for the dedication of Breakthrough, an installation of pieces of the Berlin Wall adjacent to the Winston Churchill Memorial & Library (which includes The Church of St. Mary) on Westminster’s campus.

On August 20th, 2007, GTC Dramatic Dialogues presented the first Hybrid show of their season. On Westminster’s campus.

Michael, Bethany, and I visited the Memorial, and I took plenty of pictures, which I’ll post later. The exhibits felt like they were straight out of the D-Day Museum, and I wish I would’ve had time to read every word and buy a souvenir. Between the Church, the Berlin Wall, and the site of Winston Churchill’s speech, it seemed like there was a lot of history and power in that particular spot in that little, nondescript rural Missouri town. I can’t wait to develop the pictures.

Fulton struck me as being a sleepy, small town on the cusp of revitalization. For dinner, we ate at a newly-opened restaurant called Bek’s, which apparently introduced the town to a wider variety of food and beverage in an upscale but affordable setting. The next morning, we walked down to a full-fledged coffee shop (complete with soy milk!) like you might find in Hammond, Louisiana. In fact, the whole town made me think of Hammond how it may have been at the beginning of its own revitalization, but smaller.

Speaking of Louisiana, we discovered Abita beer at Bek’s. I bought a six-pack to take home — three Purple Haze, three Turbodog — which we all enjoyed back in the room that night after the show. (For those who’re unfamiliar, Abita is a beer from back home in Louisiana. My friends and I get excited when we find it.)