<\/p>\n
Last week’s broadcast ended with anecdotes about President Woodrow Wilson. Today’s begins with some about his successor Warren Harding. Now, more than 60 years after Harding’s election, we know that his administration was one of the most corrupt in our history, culminating in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal and the imprisonment of several prominent politicians.<\/p>\n
Harding was himself not so corrupt as genial and easy-going, more fond of playing poker than giving attention to the problems of government. Harding was such a handsome man that when an audience, especially the women, heard him speak, they didn’t seem to mind the way he murdered the English language. About that language H. L. Mencken made some pungent remarks. Making an adjective out of Harding’s middle name, Gamaliel, Mencken called it Gamalielese ‘He wrote: “It reminds me of stale bean soup, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It is rumble and bumble; it is flap and doodle; it is balder and dash.” When Will Rogers called on Harding in the White House, Harding said, “This is the first time I have seen you without paying for it.”<\/p>\n
The Harding administration gave rise to the phrase “back to normalcy. “As folks became aware of the President’s easy-going ways, the word got around that by normalcy Harding meant a return to the slack morality of pre-Victorian times. Instead of the customary morality of American villages, Harding seemed to equate morality with western mining camps of the goldrush days. He invited cronies for poker games at the White House, where liquor flowed freely in Prohibition days. He made no attempt to conceal his dislike of being President. He said, “Here in the White House I am in jail, and I have no chance of getting out.”<\/p>\n
But he did get out, because death claimed him on his trip to the West, and that close-mouthed Vermonter, Calvin Coolidge, became head of the nation.<\/p>\n
Probably the most widely circulated remark about Coolidge was Dorothy Thompson’s “He must have been weaned on a pickle.” One paradox about Cooldige was that, while he was indeed reticent in conversation, his official pronouncements filled twice as many pages as did those of a loquacious predecessor, William McKinley.<\/p>\n
During his Presidency, Coolidge often vacationed in his native Plymouth, Vermont. On one occasion he was in a barber’s chair when the village doctor came in. “Hello Cal,” said the doctor. “Did you take those pills I gave you?” “No,” said Coolidge and lapsed again into silence. “Are your feet any better?” asked the doctor. “Yup,” said Coolidge. When the President got out of the chair and started to leave the shop, the barber said, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” “Gee,” said Coolidge, “I forgot to pay you I was so busy gossiping with the doctor.” When he was courting his future wife, Coolidge went to her father and said, “I want to marry Grace.” “Have you spoken to her about it?” asked the father. “No,” said Coolidge, “and I can wait a few days if it’s more convenient for you.”<\/p>\n
Soon after they were married, Coolidge brought home from his office some twenty pairs of socks that needed mending. His wife asked, “Did you marry me just to get your socks darned?” “No,” said Coolidge, “but it helps.”<\/p>\n
When Coolidge returned to Northampton after his presidency, one day an aged resident met him on the street, and said, “How do you do Mr. Coolidge. I haven’t seen you for several years.” No,” said Coolidge, “I’ve been out of town.”<\/p>\n
When Will Rogers was to attend a White House reception, a friend bet him that he couldn’t make Coolidge laugh within two minutes. “I’ll do it in 20 seconds,” said Rogers. As Rogers came through the receiving line, the usher said, “Mr. President, Will Rogers. Mr. Rogers, the President.” Whereupon Rogers immediately said, “Excuse me, I didn’t quite get the name.” A broad grin spread over the President’s face.<\/p>\n
Coolidge’s successor was one of the few Presidents who ever visited Waterville, Herbert Hoover. In fact, one of the best yarns about Hoover concerned that visit when he was here for the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of Elijah Parish Lovejoy. That was in 1937, several years after Hoover’s term of office and he was known as an Ex-president. With a slip of the tongue, President Johnson of Colby College introduced him as the late President Herbert Hoover. Once vacationing in Canada, Hoover stopped at a small hotel. The clerk asked him, “Are you related to the Hoover of FBI fame?” “No” was the reply. “Are you related to the Hoover who makes vacuum cleaners?” “No.” “Oh, well,” said the clerk, “no harm done, we just like to know when we entertain relatives of real celebrities.”<\/p>\n
Franklin Roosevelt’s four terms covered so many years that the stories about him are legion. Many of them go back many years before he became President. When he was Governor of New York, Walter Lippman said of him, “Franklin Roosevelt is a pleasant man without any particular qualifications for office. He would like to be president but he hasn’t a chance.”<\/p>\n
When he was a small boy, FDR was presented to President Grover Cleveland, who said to him, “I want to make a wish for you that I’m sure no one else would make. I wish for you that you never become President of the United States.”<\/p>\n
Pressed by the scarcity of ordinary commodities during World War I, Mrs. Roosevelt was determined to make their home in New York a model for saving and lack of waste. Of that attempt, the New York Times said: “Mrs. Roosevelt does the shopping, the cook sees that no food is wasted, the laundress is careful about clothes and table linen, and all the servants watch each other to see that everyone saves. Mrs. Roosevelt does very well at saving with the help of ten servants.”<\/p>\n
Justice Holmes said of FDR: “He’s a man with second class intellect but with first class temperament.” FDR had promised Joe Kennedy a place in the administration. Joe asked to be be Ambassador to England so he could be the first American Irishman to hold that post. “Take down your pants, Joe” said Roosevelt. With some embarrassment Kennedy obeyed. “Now look at your legs.” said FDR. “You’re the most bowlegged man I ever saw. Just think how you will look-being presented to the King in knee breeches.” Joe asked if he could have the appointment if he got the British government to let him appear in cutaway coat and striped pants. Roosevelt replied, “You don’t know the British. There’s no way you can get that permission.” “Just give me two weeks.” said Kennedy. In less than that time Joe was back with written permission signed by the British ambassador in Washington, and he was presented to the King in cutaway and striped pants.<\/p>\n
When Harry Truman was first elected to Congress, a Kansas City friend said: “Harry, when you get to the Senate, you mustn’t start with any inferiority complex. I know you’ll wonder how you got there, but after six months you’ll wonder how the rest of them got there.” When reminded that his father had been a business failure, Truman said: “He wasn’t entirely a failure. He sired a President of the United States.”<\/p>\n
When Eisenhower was President, an aide told him that it would be illegal to allow government spending beyond the debt limit. “If we do,” asked Ike, “will the whole White House staff go to jail?”\u00b7 “No,” replied the aide, “we’ll have to go to the Congress.” “That’s worse,” said Ike. When a group of his advisors had spent all night wrestling with a problem and were completely exhausted, Ike said it reminded him of a story about a cross-eyed judge who once found himself confronting a cross-eyed jury. “What’s your name ?” the judge asked the first juror. The second juror answered. “I wasn’t speaking to you,” said the judge, whereupon the third juror said. “I didn’t say anything.”<\/p>\n
A good story concerns two Presidents, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. They and Senator Symington were all three candidates for nomination to the presidency in 1960. Kennedy said he had dreamed that the Lord tapped him on the shoulder and said he was going to be President. Symington said he had had the same dream about himself. Then Johnson remarked: “That’s strange, I can’t recall ever tapping either of you for President.”<\/p>\n
At a dinner given by the Chamber of Commerce in Detroit, Pres. Nixon told about the attack on him in Venezuela. He said, “Getting stoned in South America is a lot different from getting stoned at a Chamber of Commerce dinner.” When Betty Ford told Nixon she didn’t know whether making her husband Vice President was a compliment or a rebuke, Nixon said, “At least the pay is better.”<\/p>\n
When Pres. Carter was asked whether Amy bragged about having her father in the White House, he replied, “No, she apologizes.” When Carter visited drought ridden Texas, he stepped off the plane into a smart shower. He quipped: “You’ve been begging for money or rain. I haven’t any money for you, so I brought rain.”<\/p>\n
Good stories are told about Pres. Reagan’s light hearted humor after the attempted assassination. One that hasn’t been circulated concerned the nurse who said to Reagan, “You’re a good patient.” “I have to be,” he said, “my father-in-law is a doctor.”<\/p>\n
And that ends our broadcasts of anecdotes about American presidents. Next week we shall turn to another subject.<\/p>\n
Year: 1982<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1306, Broadcast on March 21, 1982<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35294,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}