Re: [cpsig] Re: President Roosevelt's Train Trip to Birch Island, Canada in 1943

  • From: Michael Rozeboom <michael.rozeboom@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:12:36 -0400

Don Thomas wrote:

FDR did not always use his wheelchair. He could walk with the aid of
a person on either side and on some occasions walked alone a short
distance to reach a lectern (heaving his hips forward and supported
by heavy braces). Arthur Dubin's "Some Classic Trains" has a photo of
him standing at the top of the vestibule steps of a Pullman holding
his cane. He was constantly getting into and out of autos whenever he
went anywhere or left his house (whether the White House, Hyde Park
or elsewhere) so there is no reason why he wouldn't have used one at
Birch Island if it was easier than staying in the wheelchair between
train and boat. The major challenge for him and his staff was doing
all this without his disability being publicly noticed. (It was
widely known that he was crippled but the extent was not clear to the
public and his staff and Secret Service managed to keep it hidden so
well that only a handful of photos of him in a wheelchair have
survived.) Since activity at the Birch Island site could be kept out
of general public view there was no limitation on how he transferred
from one mode to another. It must have been far easier for him to get
off the train with whatever amount of assistance he needed, than to
use his wheelchair to do it. Once on the platform he could use either
his wheelchair or a limo to reach the boat, whichever was easier.


There was an unwritten rule among the press, they would not take pictures of FDR that revealed he was disabled. Today, he never would have stood a chance. Wearing mismatched socks would keep the US cable networks busy for days discussing the meaning of the mismatched socks.

Not like here, where Rick Mercer can take them out to CTC for weatherstripping, or to Harveys for a burger. And no one cares!


--


Michael Rozeboom
Team Amiga



-=-=-
... Microcosm: The game the CD32 was built for. Stunning stuff - 86%".
-- CU Amiga, December 1993


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