Snippets of Memories of Mrs Roosevelt and My Father

Yes, I remember the day my father introduced me to Eleanor Roosevelt  at Luckey Platt's Department Store in Poughkeepsie, NY (now a Social Security office on the corner of Main and Academy Streets)... She knew my grandparents really well, and we ( my parents and brothers and I)  were shopping for a ballet dress for me for my 4th birthday when she drove the  car up to the side door, and parked at the curb on Academy Street.... 


My father stood at the door watching her get out of the car (which had been FDRs and still had the special equipment in it so he could drive it) and opened the door for her  and her housekeeper. The first thing I heard as he opened the door was WHY DONALD IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!! HOW ARE YOU? HOW'S YOUR MOTHER/?  YOUR SISTER? YOUR BROTHER?!

They stood there talking for quite a while Mrs. Roosevelt was a VERY nice, very REAL person.

 I remember being introduced to her and  her bending down to my level to speak to me. My father said SHE'S SHY... and Mrs. Roosevelt bent down and as we looked at each other she said, THAT'S OK. I WAS VERY SHY WHEN I WAS YOUNG TOO.. and she smiled and asked me a few things and I answered and smiled back. I knew about Presidents and First Ladies even at that young age, and I was thinking of how other people not even as important as she was were more stiffly formal than she was and most wouldn't have bent down to speak directly to me to hold a little conversation. She was very personable and treated me like a PERSON. I looked her in the eyes and knew she was someone who had a real heart and she had mine from that day on

As I got older and learned more about her life, and after reading her life story, I realized how shy she HAD been, and all the things she had delt with, and learning about how she overcame it, along with remembering what she said to me and how she was that day, is one way I conquered my shyness. I thought IF SHE CAN DO ALL SHE'S DONE, AND BE SO FORTHRIGHT, SO CAN I. 

If you go to Roosevelt Cinemas in Hyde Park, (located directly across from SPRINGWOOD) you'll see Eagles hanging on the walls in a couple of the threatres. My father designed and made them out of plywood and bolted them together, at her request, that day at Luckey's. 

I remember him cutting them out and painting them... Asking for opinions on what color to paint them... and being concerned about how he would assemble the various parts and hang them. Then he had the Eureka moment and smiled and got bolts and long screws and a drill and did the assembly and painted them in the sign shop/barn behind our house. They are hung with strong wire attached to hooks in the walls. The evening of the day he hung them on the walls, we were her guests for whatever movie was playing. I wish I could remember what it was! 

He also designed the lettering and painted the sign on the front that says ROOSEVELT ... It has been repainted since then, but it is still the same exact sign. I remember when he finished that, taking us in the car to see it one evening. That was all in 1954 and 55. 

As I recall, her son, Elliot, had the theatre built for her and she used to go there and sit in "The Cry Room" (now one of the projection rooms) which was a room with glass front, overlooking the theatre, which was only one in those days.It was quite simple but very comfortable... with reclining seats and etched glass and grass on the half-wall that divided the actual theatre from the hall and doors, to the rear. The doors on the front of the lobby are the same ones I remember being there when I was a child. (I remember marveling at them... Metal doors with all glass in them!...In those days all doors were made of WOOD)  My mother said that they were a new metal called Aluminum) But as with Luckey's, it's basically a shell of  what it used to be.

My gandparents knew the Roosevelts, and used to go to Sunday Dinner at Springwood. My father and his sister and brother also went but ate in the kitchen with the Roosvelt children... and played in their playroom (the big room with all the windows, in the front, on the north end) when they were finished so the adults could retire to the livingroom to talk. This was before he became President, but also, afterward, when he came home to visit

Somewhere among the family memorabilia, there is a photo from a local newspaper that shows a red-haired freckled faced boy, grinning and standing on the running board of FDR's car, clinging to the side of the car. He had just voted for himself at the Hyde Park Town Hall. The boy is my father, having just turned 10 years old in November

After serving in  WWII, and being with the First Infantry Division( He was among those of 2nd wave to land on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day)   my father became a National Park Guard for several  years and guarded the Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Estates, before going to IBM where he worked as an artist for 45 years.

(Among other things, he was also the announcer (and later alternated weekends with Mike Fisher... who I hear is still there) at Old Rinebeck Aerodrome for over 20 years. Having met Cole Palen in the winter of 1961, he helped to promote the aerodrome and painted all the billboards and signs and the little buildings that were part of the show. He sat at the head table with Cole for the retirement dinner. They both retired from it that same year, and my father died in January 1993 and Cole in December of the same year.)


I have many fond memories thanks to my parents and grandparents, on both sides of the family ... These are only a few of them, inspired by a photograph of that November day when I met Eleanor Roosevelt

1950's Winters in the Country, as a Child

They say it might be a REALLY COLD and SNOWY winter this year... If only I had a house with a nice woodburning stove to cook on and sit by, I wouldn't care how cold and snowy it got ... I remember being little and living in our big old farmhouse and sitting by the woodburning cookstove in the kitchen all day when it was really REALLY cold, and during blizzards. . Yes we had a furnace.... a coal burning furnace, but my mother felt it best to save the coal for when we were going to bed and through the night. We'd sit there and watch the fire flicker and color in coloring books and play games and many times, we'd bake with her. The crackling of the fire and the smell of the wood burning was so comforting... relaxing... especially on those days when the winds were whipping 50 to 70 mph and the snow was building drifts over the top of our two-story house, on the north side.

After it ended (usually the next day, when we had snow days off... and in those days the snow was so deep and the plows had to work overtime, we could be off almost all week) we'd go out and play in the snow as soon as we had breakfast or lunch.. and we'd go in and out every half an hour for 3 to 4 hours, usually... while Mom dried our gloves and gave us another pair, and warmed our shoes and boots by the stove before putting them on. In those days, getting ready to go out took TIME to get ready

... two pairs of socks, the regular ones and men's woolen ones, flannel lined corduroys, a T-shirt, a shirt and a sweater and then the snow pants that were flannel lined with cotton batting for added warmth, and made of wool, with straps to keep them up. They were a real chore to get over the pants.... and it was always a big giggle fest when Mom had to reach up our pant legs to pull legs on the corduroys down, and reach up our arms to pull the sweater sleeves down. She must have gotten quite a work-out doing that for 3 kids. Then there was the hat ( the ear lapper kind) and a scarf wrapped around our necks and covering our mouths. ... and finally pulling the rubber boots with the clips on the over the sneekers .... and trying not to scratch... as the wool chaffed around the neck and face... and the finishing touch was the mittens... which we had several pairs of, and when they were all on the rack drying, we resorted to using socks... two or three pairs at a time... including Dad's lol

When we'd had enough (4 hours or so usually) and our feet were about to get frostbite, we came in and stripped down to undies and bathrobes and put our feet in a tub of warm water ... and talked and dreamed and recounted the highlights of our adventures for the day

Then came cookies, or cinnamon toast, and cocoa while coloring in coloring books, working on plastic models, or reading comic books and resting, or napping for a while, sitting by the stove, with with our heads on the table... til lunch, or suppertime

At night we always had a bath before bedtime, but when it was really cold, we'd get into our PJs, slippers and bathrobes, and go down to the kitchen for a snack before bed, and to grab the brick wrapped in a towel that Mom had heated for each of us to put under the layers of blankets, by our feet... and she'd make the rounds, and read us each a little golden book before tucking us in, kissing us good-night, and turning out the light... and then we'd say our prayers, and round s of good nights, and go to sleep... ZZZZZzzzzZzzZzzzzz

Nine Eleven two thousand and one

The night before the Twin Towers fell, I went for a walk on Vassar College campus. it had rained. It was warm and the clouds were moving overhead, breaking up and moving on...

There was a very noticeable stillness there that night that I had not experienced before. There were few students out and about. No noises coming from the dorm rooms. Of the few students I saw, none spoke as they passed on the walkways. Heads were tilted down. and the students just moved in silence... The sounds of doors opening and closing was muted ... but it wasn't eerie. In fact it was very very peaceful... It was as if the whole earth was in a hushed mode.

I had walked on the roadway there, from the North Gate, past the dimly lit Walker Field House, on the hill, to the rear of the campus,... past the dark hills of the golf course,... starting down the hill, nearing Sunset Lake... listening to the sound of water droplets falling and the soft sound of my sandals on the pavement.... and the silence... sencing something, like all nature was trying to tell me something...but what? To myself, in a loud whisper, I said "GOD WHAT IS IT?"

The passing clouds seemed to be almost at eye level, just above the trees in front of me... to the west ... Suddenly, I was stopped, frozen by what I saw.... There, in the clouds, was something I had never seen before...a, HUGE, burst of bright orange and gold, as if something had exploded and caught fire in the cloud... I stood, staring, for a moment, thinking maybe it was lightning... but there was no sound of distant thunder and no other flashes... I senced something... I had seen something ....

I went home and told of my experience ... wondering if there had been any news of a plane exploding over Newburgh ... No there was no news of anything like that... Discussing what it might have been and finding no sensible answer, I went to sleep...

In the morning, when I was awakened being told what was happening, it was as if I knew...There was no sence of shock, only that feeling that says I AM REALLY SEEING THIS ... IT'S HAPPENING...

For months after, as I sat by the river looking at how peaceful and unchanged it was, I thought abut what had happened and what it looked like just 80 miles to the south...

In my own home state... RIGHT HERE... IN AMERICA

... and that way is always WIN

the pain I feel, from head to toe
the burning,
vibrating,
   you don't know

I keep on smiling
I keep on trying,
even though
   my body's dying

A soldier never gives up
a soldier never gives in
a soldier only knows one way
and that way  is always
WIN

When I go,
I'll go face first
no more to hunger
no more to thirst

because

 I AM
the RiverLightRider