A Rose of a different Color!!!!

                                                                     Hyde Park

With all the political slop on TV and the internet... and the discussion on women's rights, something that has been getting ridiculous.  

Women fought hard to be part of the voting  public.  Women fought for rights in the work place.  Did you know that uncooperative wives were often sent to the poor house or asylum??  True...Woman should have autonomy over their lives and their bodies...so I have been thinking about the fact that I have been lucky enough to travel around New York State…see beautiful scenery…learn interesting history…and get to know people from the past and how things today got to be.  

Thinking about my past year’s travels brought me a re-introduction of thoughts on a grand lady of note, Eleanor Roosevelt.  On a visit to Hyde Park and her home Val Kill, I was treated to a video documentary on her life..and what a life it was.

Just this past week I received a card with one of Eleanor’s quotes on it...not the kind of quote you would expect, but for Eleanor Roosevelt one cannot expect the normal -just the truthful, and in some cases humorous.

The card came with this quote from Eleanor - it read:  “I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.  But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: ‘NO good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’”

The grand dame of the democrats was a self-made person of sorts - putting herself into the role of First Lady as no other had done before her.  She was a politician who stumped for her husband and an activist who worked diligently for the United Nations and for human rights...in fact she was a person who understood more than any of her collogues then… that “women’s rights” were a necessity in the modern world and in America.

More than ever we need a person like Eleanor to guide us through the political muckery of today, a person who has the ability to show the world that human rights are needed by all people, especially in this world that is becoming smaller each and every day.

Perhaps she was successful because she was no beauty queen - only a woman of many faces…. mother...wife…friend...writer...activist….

They called her the “first lady (citizen) of the world”...and that she was…and she was a "rose of a different color!"

January, Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt- No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin and a reason to read history!

doris

Springwood at Hyde Park 

The cold of winter and the lure of the “ole woodstove” bring on my study of history as usual.  I have finished from this fall until now... a number of books going from the Great Depression on to the Neal Deal and WWII - from 5 by Churchill, two by Eisenhower, 2 on Johnson, and the gem of them all “No Ordinary Time” by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

With January 30^th coming this week – the Birthday of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,  I scheduled reading the book to coincide with it.  The book is a complete look at the Roosevelt years brought forth in an intimate way. It is the story of all the people surrounding the President and First Land as well as the story of a fight not only to end the “Depression” but also to end the world conflict.  Leaders like Winston Churchill, King, Hopkins, and Stalin come to life, as do all the characters involved both official and family life.  Doris uses a huge amount of research that weaves the story using the actual words via diaries, press articles, and personal interviews... as well as glimpses of the official record.

Seeing Eleanor as her true self is a stunning glimpse into a woman who drove herself and in part her husband to improve not on the United States but the world.  She often is called is eyes and legs in her travesl…but the book shows that she was also an antagonist that harped at him for causes he otherwise would have let go.

The title actually came from a speech Eleanor gave not the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The speech came when Roosevelt ran for an unheard of third term.  He maneuvered to get the delegates to put his name up for nomination without actually declaring to run or going to the convention.  The conventioneers resented the fact that he did not come in person and when he wished to have Henry Wallace nominated for Vice President... the convention erupted trying to push a number of other candidates beccoming quite an unsettled and raucous scene. 

So in typical fashion he asked Eleanor to go and speak to them.  Up until that time no other First Lady had addressed a Democratic Convention.  With noise and “carryings-on” they put her to the podium after all the names had been placed in nomination to speak.  As she spoke the convention quieted and she appealed to them to give the President the man he wanted…with the world at war  “this was no ordinary time”.  When she finished, Wallace was unanimously selected.

The book is a New York Times Best Seller, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a worthy study that should be read by all… especially the baby boomers and younger folk so that they can get a true picture of those days in America. A time of poverty, strife, segregation, New Deals, rationing, the industrial War effort, women to work, and most of all the intimate story of the man that held it all together.

Quoting the New York Times _”Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now, that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House. “

Even if you don’t agree with his policies reading the book will give you the ability to see that his Presidency was a gift to the people of not only America, but the world at war!  Read or listen to it.  A rare history book that will have you crying with the Nation at the end.

Below is my video of Springwood at Hyde Park where you can visit the Presidents home, Library, and Eleanor's cottage at Val-kill....a day trip visit from CNY a great place to visit with the family.

The very historic events of April 15th in our history!

Springwood at Hyde Park

Today we remember April 15th because of the movie Lincoln or for the sinking of the Titanic mostly because of movies in the mainstream, however April 15th was a more modern event of great importance for Americans of the WWII era...It was the day they buried their beloved Presidtent FDR. Last year on this week I took the time to visit FDR's home and grave!

Few alive today can remember the heart felt sorrow that accompanied the word that FDR was dead. Roosevelt had gone to his retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia and was enjoying a peaceful day trying to relieve the stress of World War II. He had been working and sitting for a portrait that was being done by artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff, who was a friend of Lucy Rutherford, Roosevelt’s longtime mistress. It was here at what was called the little White House”, on the day before Friday the 13th, FDR suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage and died.

Franklin’s body was taken in a copper lined casket to the rail station and sent to Washington, DC where 24 hours later a grief-stricken city waited for him. The President’s funeral took place in the White House on Saturday the 14th with only a limited number of people able to fit into the small area by invitation. Then taken to the train station for his last ride from Washington to Hyde Park, New York and the Roosevelt’s beloved estate Springwood.

The President did not want a big ceremony only simple arrangements, but was followed by a huge entourage on the train made up of Congressmen, Senators and dignitaries. West Point Cadets arrived, as well as plain citizens and members of the Armed forces. Warplanes flew overhead and with a nation’s prayers, Roosevelt was laid to rest in the Rose Garden.

Franklin only wanted a plain slab of white marble as a monument, and today that monument in the rose Garden, is part of the Hyde Park National Historic Park that includes America’s first Presidential Library, started in 1941 before FDR’s death by FDR himself. Also within the park is Springwood Estate bequeathed to the United States by Roosevelt himself ,along with all of its original furnishings and its many out buildings.

Today you can visit this important site and walk the grounds where much history unfolded, and where a grateful nation laid its leader to rest on April 15th, 1945. Buried with him is his wife Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and his famous dog Fala.

If you do go to visit Springwood besure to visit Eleanor's place at Val-Kill ...on the grounds....video below.

Thoughts of Eleanor Roosevelt and the end of the war with Japan!

I had a number of people email me about my blog on Eleanor Roosevelt this week and on my blog on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.  As I rested last night I wondered what Eleanor thought about the end of the war with Japan, a war that ended on August 14, 1945.

Luckily I had been to Val-Kill and Hyde Park as well as the FDR Library, and figured correctly that her many columns must be preserved and available on line….they are!

So here is her released statement on the ending of the War with Japan published on the “day after” ..August 15, 1945 held via her request.

ER……When word was flashed that peace had come to the world again, I found myself filled with very curious sensations. I had no desire to go out and celebrate. I remembered the way the people demonstrated when the last war ended, but I felt this time that the weight of suffering which has engulfed the world during so many years could not so quickly be wiped out. There is a quiet rejoicing that men are no longer bringing death to each other throughout the world. There is great happiness, too, in the knowledge that someday, soon, many of those we love will be at home again to give all they have to the rebuilding of a peaceful world.

One cannot forget, however, the many, many people to whom this day will bring only a keener sense of loss, for, as others come home, their loved ones will not return.

In every community, if we have eyes to see and hearts to feel, we will for many years see evidences of the period of war, which we have been through. There will be men among us who all their lives, both physically and mentally, will carry the marks of war; and there will be women who mourn all the days of their lives. Yet there must be an undercurrent of deep joy in every human heart, and great thankfulness that we have world peace again.

Sadly, we never really have had “world peace” again….and now the wars…. though just as horrible…the impact of them like Iraq and Afghanistan”….are really only felt by those who have lost someone or have someone fighting there.

The wars no longer are in our thoughts daily, and most of us have given little up nor thought much about them except for the jiber-jaber in the news about the tight US budget or the cost in terms of $$$ that our taxes must pay!  Only saddened when a local soldier is lost….

Take a trip to Hyde Park and the FDR Library as well as Val-Kill, and realize that we were lucky to have these elected people in power at that time….

We had the right choice for President of the United States and for Vice President….though we couldn’t choose the right First Lady....We got her anyway she was the best part of the deal!

A Trip to Hyde Park..Springwood

Eleanor Roosevelt - a rose of a different color!

With my new company History Star Productions I have been lucky enough to travel around New York State…see beautiful scenery…learn interesting history…and get to know people from the past.  This year’s travels brought me a re-introduction of a sort to a grand lady of note, Eleanor Roosevelt.  On a visit to Hyde Park and her home Val Kill, I was treated to a new video documentary on her life..and what a life it was.

Just this past week I received a card with one of Eleanor’s quotes on it...not the kind of quote you would expect, but for Eleanor Roosevelt one cannot expect the normal -just the truthful, and in some cases humorous.

The card came with this quote from Eleanor - it read:  “I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.  But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: ‘NO good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’”

The grand dame of the democrats was a self-made person of sorts - putting herself into the role of First Lady as no other had done before her.  She was a politician who stumped for her husband and an activist who worked diligently for the United Nations and for human rights...in fact she was a person who understood more than any of her collogues then… that “women’s rights” were a necessity in the modern world and in America.

More than ever we need a person like Eleanor to guide us through the political muckery of today, a person who has the ability to show the world that human rights are needed by all people, especially in this world that is becoming smaller each and every day.

Perhaps she was successful because she was no beauty queen - only a woman of many faces…. mother...wife…friend...writer...activist….

They called her the “first lady (citizen) of the world”...and that she was…and she was a "rose of a different color!"

Watch and learn more about this great woman.....for a trip to Val-kill via my video..watch