President and Mrs. Roosevelt

Miss Katherine loves to tell stories, especially of her childhood and the way things were in the early 1900's. Her mind is sharp and she is always thinking, or some people may call worrying, about things that may or may not happen. She likes to know all the details. If you are telling her something and you do not tell her all the detail, who, what, when, where and why, then she will think about the details she does know and "suppose" the unknown facts. For instance, Sunday she asked me, "Did you see Bill and Carol Monroe in church?" I told her that I did not see them. "Well, I wonder where they were. I know if Bill had been in church he would have come over and spoke to me. He sits not far from where I sit and I know he would have stopped by to say 'hello'. I wonder if his back or his knee was bothering him again. I told him what to take for the back and knee problem. If he took it like I said, he should not have any problems with that. I don't think he would be flying this weekend because it is Easter and I don't think anyone would be wanting to fly this weekend. He didn't mention anything to me about flying this weekend. I hope Carol is not sick. I bet they went to pick up Jason and to bring him home for Easter weekend. They will probably keep Jason for a few days and then they will have to take him back to Ocala. Yes, I just bet you that is what they did. I bet Carol will help Jason color some Easter eggs and he likes to help her make cupcakes, too.

And so...the saga of Bill and Carol Monroe, MIA from church, has been solved. She couldn't stand it any longer and I had to call them on Tuesday morning. The mystery has been confirmed. They had gone to pick up their son, Jason, and kept him for a few days. Just like she had figured out. She likes details and she wants to know them all.  I guess that is a trait of a good story teller.  Every little detail adds interest to your story.

A story she tells from 1933, reiterates the fact that she likes to know all the details.

"President Roosevelt was coming to Savannah! My Daddy was invited to come and meet the President and he asked my Mama and me if we wanted to come, too. Well, of course, we said yes we would. We were all at the train station waiting for the President, but for some reason the train was running late. They tried to find out if the train had an accident. They said they did not know why it was running late. There was a big crowd of people there that day. The train was the way people traveled back then. They didn’t fly in airplanes like they do today. But, anyway, after a long, long wait, the train finally arrived. They announced President Franklin D.  Roosevelt. And a man stepped off the train and was walking with a crutch. I said to my Mama and Daddy, Oh, look, the president has been hurt. They must have had a train wreck, that’s why they are so late, and the President was injured. My Daddy laughed and said, no, the President has always walked with crutches or a cane.  I read about that in the newspaper. He had polio, or something like that, and he has braces on his legs to help him walk. I said well, why didn’t you tell me? I didn’t know that. I really hadn’t seen him much because we didn’t have televisions like we do today. I had seen him several times at the movie theater in the news reels that they show before the movie. Well, we went into this big place and we had a nice dinner, that’s what I call the meal you eat at 12 o’clock noon. Some people call that lunch. And so…the President spoke, I don’t remember what he spoke about, and then my Daddy told us he had been invited to go out to the air force place for another meeting and supper with the President later on that day. My Mama and I couldn’t go home and leave him there in Savannah, and so, we stayed, too. My Daddy was asked to give a speech when we got there. I don’t know if he knew ahead of time that he had to do that or not. And so, he got up and gave a speech for President Roosevelt. I guess they asked him to speak because he was mayor of Yemassee. But, I sure didn’t know the President had to use those leg braces to help him walk.

Through research from his journal, President Franklin Roosevelt visited Savannah while on his trip to Warm Springs, Georgia. He often went to Warm Springs because he thought the springs that were there were therapeutic. This occurred in November 1933 and the main purpose of this trip was to commemorate Georgia’s 150th anniversary of statehood.

"His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt was a fine lady. She was traveling around making talks to groups of people. She went to a hotel to spend the night and she had a little black girl with her. I guess she was there to help her with her things, I don't know exactly why she was with her. But the hotel said that she could have a room but the colored girl could not stay there. Mrs. Roosevelt said that if she couldn’t stay there, then she wasn’t going to stay there either. And so, she gathered her things and left. I don’t know where she stayed, but I’m sure they found somewhere to spend the night. Mrs. Roosevelt was a nice lady. She did a lot of nice thing for people."