Franklin Delano Roosevelt (6/12/25)

 

As we made our way towards Massachusetts, we realized that our trajectory would take us past the official Presidential Library of FDR, in Hyde Park, NY,  and of course we weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to see it. 

We have already been to his “little White House” –his cottage in Warm Springs Georgia that he visited as often as he could. He was at the cottage when he died in 1945.

My post about it:

( https://soos-ontheroad.blogspot.com/2013/04/f-d-r-state-park-03-27-13.html )

The library/museum in New York is totally different, and is unique in the sense that he always knew he was going to donate the property for his presidential library, so most of the contents are original.

When his parents bought the house in the mid 1800s it was a small two story farm house. In 1915 FDR  added 18 rooms.

His mother always lived with him.

FDR suffered from Polio but he never wanted to be seen as weak, so he found innovative ways to appear to be walking and standing on his own. Before a speech for example, he would have his crew bolt the podium to the floor so he could lean his weight on it. He had special braces made to help him move his legs more naturally. There are very few pictures of him in his wheelchair.

In his house, he modified the elevator that had been installed to move their trunks (suitcases) up and down  to fit his wheelchair.

Roosevelt was the longest serving president in U.S. history. He was actually elected four times, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. Until  him, there was a tradition, starting with George Washington, that no president should serve more than two terms. But it was a tradition, not a law.

During Roosevelt’s tenure, the  country was going through some very difficult times, including the Great Depression, which he is credited with helping to end. In 1936, his election to his second term was the biggest electoral landslide in U.S. history.

By the time his second term had ended, World War II was heating up, and the majority of the voters seemed to feel we needed someone in office who was experienced and already knowledgeable about the world situation. He was easily elected to his third term.

He ran for an unprecedented 4th term at the height of world war II, and won by a comfortable margin.  He died in office just months before the end of the war.

In 1955 the 22nd amendment was added to the constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office.

Without a doubt he accomplished a lot as president, putting into place programs such as the FDIC, Federal Trade Commission, Social Security, and the Federal Alcohol Administration to name just a few. As impressive as that is, in this library there was also information detailing that many of his programs did not survive the opposition and were either not implemented or were discontinued.

Green Valley House update:

Cement has been poured!

Campobello (08-10-18)

Once you head north out of Acadia National Park, it isn’t too long before you run into Canada. We had no reservations anywhere, so we looked at a map to see what looked interesting. Campobello was the answer to that question.

Campobello is an international park- basically that means that everyone who comes to visit needs a passport. Its also an island, and the border stops are at either end of the bridge.




At the border stop our way onto the island (which is in New Brunswick) we were asked, as usual, about our alcohol. Paul replied our agreed upon answer :  not a lot- just enough for personal use. Deliberately vague, since we are only allowed basically a liter apiece, and we perhaps had more than that. (We sort of had forgotten we brought a .75 liter bottle of the good tequila.) The agent was very nice and let us know that  next time, we need to know exactly what we have, in case they check, and find more than we said- in which case they could flag us. Hmm…now we had to drink for two days or heaven forbid, dump something out.

We had booked two nights in the Provincial Park, and once we were set up, we went off exploring. At one end of the island there is a smaller, very picturesque island, with a light house on it.

Both the island and the mainland we were standing on had stairs leading down into the water-and a big sign:

When we looked into the water, we could see arrows painted on the rocks, showing where the trail is. It would have been fun, but we never did get there at low tide. That’s ok, we got to watch the whales off the coast.

So, what is Campobello? An escape from everyday life and the heat of the city for the rich and who cares if they are famous.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s parents took him here when he was a young child and was sick, because they thought the sea air would do him good. They fell in love with the place and built a “cottage”. They were one of about 30 wealthy families who had homes on the island. Whenever they were here, they mingled with the locals and were really just interested in the fresh air, being outdoors, and sailing.



Franklin grew up spending summers on the island, and his children continued the tradition as much as possible. When the next door neighbor passed away, she left her cottage to Franklin and Eleanor, and they no longer had to share space with his mother.

We took two tours on the island, which are offered free of charge. The first was a half hour tour of the Roosevelt cottage. The tour guides are really knowledgeable and the tour was really interesting.

The second tour was longer, and was called the FUN tour. She started by asking us all to introduce ourselves by adding an adjective in front of our name that starts with the first letter of our name. We went around the circle, and I became Silly Sue, since that’s all I could think of. When we were done, she said she just wanted to see if we would do it. There was some silliness like that, but also we got to go behind the scenes more, and heard more personal type stories of the people on the island.




At a neighbors cottage, we heard about the crazy parties they would have, with dancing and live music. Franklin would often play the piano at the parties. Then she asked if anyone played, and everyone who did, was given a chance to play the piano.

Usually the dancing would take place on the large deck, and once we got there, each family group was given 5 minutes to practice a dance to perform for everyone. There would be a prize for the best dance.

I was surprised that everyone was pretty inventive. We had the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Hokey Pokey.

I was even more surprised when we actually won, for our version of the “Porter Polka”.



Most people participated- and the guides were very upfront before the tour- if you didn’t want to have fun and be silly, its not the tour for you!





After the death of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, the land was deeded to the United States and Canada and is jointly owned and operated by the two countries.


After leaving the island, we spent one night back in the U.S. before heading back into Canada. We stocked up on some food items and did some laundry before we would need to pay for it with Canadian coins.

Once we crossed into Canada again, we headed straight for Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. We have been here before but it was a good stopping point along the way to Nova Scotia.

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world- up to 50 feet.  When the tide is low, you can walk on the sea floor. There is an up stair case, and a separate Down staircase, due to the amount of people. You buy at ticket that is good for two days, so you can come at low tide one day and high tide the next.

Lucky for us that a) we have been here before and b) we chose to go at low tide first- because the second day, the weather was awful and certainly was not worth getting drenched to see high tide.

Anyway, this is what the rocks look like at low tide and  high tide- to get a perspective, you can see people underneath the rocks in the first picture.





















We had one more treat to repeat before we headed into Nova Scotia. The tidal bore. Along with such a huge tidal change, comes a tidal bore.  Basically, so much water rushes in the river so fast, that it comes in as a wave.  In Moncton there is a park where you can watch the bore come down the river. Once the wave passes, the water level raises at an incredible pace.

Now we were ready to move on to Nova Scotia.

F. D. R. (State Park) 03-27-13

We stayed a short 3 days in Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park, but we kept busy the whole time we were there.  My original idea was to spend our 3 days hiking- every single day, just because there are plenty of trails there, and we haven’t had a chance to do much hiking.  As it turns out, we really need to get back into shape!

Once again it was brought home to us that we went too far north too fast.  Temperatures here at night are in the 20s- and they stay pretty much in the high 40s-low 50s during the day.  That wrecked our plans for hiking the first day, so we decided to tour F.D.R’s little White House instead. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man

Franklin D. Roosevelt was diagnosed with Polio as a young man.  At that time,Polio could affect anyone, at any age, and had varied symptoms, usually in the form of some type of paralysis. In Franklin’s case, his legs were the most affected and he struggled to walk, using canes, braces and a wheel chair for most of his life. 

It’s a sign of the times that the general public, even after he was elected as President, either wasn’t aware of the fact that he used a wheel chair, or didn’t feel it was important, and there are actually very few pictures of him sitting in a wheel chair.  As a wealthy man, he had his wheelchairs and braces custom built for him, and even designed the special steering system for his car, so he could drive himself.

 
Elected as President in 1933, in the midst of the depression, FDR implemented an amazing amount of programs and strategies for getting the U.S. back to work.  He called it “The New Deal”- a comprehensive plan to alleviate unemployment and restructure the economy.  Of course, we can’t say that every program was successful, but my eyes were bulging out of my head when I read the list of things he accomplished as President.  Here are some of them:

• F.D.I.C. Insurance program for banks
• C.C.C.- Civilian Conservation  Corp- a program for putting young men to work building infrastructure in our national/state parks. Their work is still standing.
• Public Works Administration
• F.A.A. – Federal Alcohol Administration
• F.C.C.- Federal Communications Commission
• F.E.R.A.- Federal Emergency Relief Administration
• S.S.A- Social Security Administration and Unemployment Insurance
• R.E.A. Rural Electrification Administration (more on this later)

He also started the March of Dimes, and although it isn’t a government program, it is still in place to this day.
In addition to all that, he was President when World War II broke out and guided the United States towards a victory.  Sadly, he died suddenly just months before the war ended.

Warm Springs, Georgia

The history of Warm Springs Georgia can be divided into two eras- pre-FDR and post-FDR.  Before FDR found out about the warm springs in this town, it was a high end resort where the rich came to play.

Then Roosevelt heard that bathing in the spring water is very beneficial for those with Polio. He came here, and felt that although the water wasn’t a miracle, his muscles felt stronger, and it could be an important therapeutic tool to combat Polio.

He was instrumental in opening a treatment center here, where thousands of kids and adults came for relief from Polio.  Once a vaccination was developed in 1955, Polio became a thing of the past and the treatment center was used for other illnesses.

 
There are still treatment centers in the area, but the original one for Polio has been turned into a museum.  You can walk into the pools as part of the tour.








On the same grounds as the museum, is FDR’s little White House, a cottage he bought and stayed in as frequently as he could, while visiting the springs.

Its a very small cottage, really cozy.  FDR was here, working while having his portrait painted, when he died. 

The portrait was never finished, but the artist used it to complete a second portrait- so now there are two.

 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  When FDR saw his electric bill for the cottage one time, he was shocked to see that it was 4 times the bill for his large house in New York. He did some investigating and discovered that in rural sections of the country, the people who had electricity, paid outrageous prices for it, so many farmers went without it. That’s why he started the Rural Electrification Administration.

Columbus, Georgia

One of the things we love is when we talk to other travelers and hear the words….”oh, have you seen this yet?”  Especially when we had no idea that “this” was even in the area, so no, we hadn’t seen it yet.  That was the case with Columbus, GA.  A woman we met at the campground suggested that we make a day trip there to see the sights.  

We drove the 40 miles to get there, parked the truck and walked to the banks of the…..Chattahoochee River!

I, of course, immediately started humming Alan Jackson songs.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you don’t listen to country music!  I will say, I guess I am not surprised to see that the river looked quite muddy.

Muddy or not, though, there was plenty of wildlife, especially turtles!
We ate lunch at a local diner, and walked a little of the 15 mile river walk.







Our other stop that day was at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus.  Yes, another Civil War Museum.  In one sense, I have seen plenty of war museums, but on the other hand, by not trying to take in everything in the museum, I can focus on the parts that interest me, and that helps fill in the blanks in my history knowledge, while not overloading my brain.

Being a naval museum, there was a lot of focus on the Ironclads of the Civil War. This is the remains of an Ironclad boat that was pulled out of the river.  The metal framing outlines the parts of the boat that are missing.

Nearby there was an example of the thickness of the hull on the ironclad ships.

Here’s a model of what an Ironclad would have looked like before it sank.  The “small” holes in the sides have cannons sticking out of them.

There were many artifact displays as well.  This one caught my eye. This tool is called a Battle Rattle.  It is used on ships to sound an alarm because it’s rattle could be heard over the sounds aboard ship.  It looks to me  like a beefed up New Year’s Eve noise maker!

As I read through the timeline display of the Civil War, I was amazed at just how many battle sites we have visited in our travels over the last 4 years.

  One of the displays gave the history of the USS Constitution, a ship I am familiar with because I grew up in Boston, where “old Ironsides” still resides (although nicknamed “ironsides”- she is not an ironclad).  Built in 1797, she is the oldest commissioned warship still floating. I was living in Boston in 1997 when she sailed under her own power for the first time since 1881.  It was an awesome thing to see.





By the time the Civil War came about, The Constitution had seen all the active duty she was going to, and was used by the Union side as a training vessel.

On our last day at this campground, the weather finally warmed up and stopped raining long enough for us to hike.  We chose the Wolf Den trail because it is about 7 miles long and features a waterfall.  Points of interest along hiking trails are tough to come by in some areas, so we love it when we can find a trail with something to see.