PART 5

my
life
with

F.D.L

by ANNA ROOSEVELT

people who lived and worked there.

The faces of the people who came
to see and hear Father were not
happy faces; they were searching
faces. Many of these people obviously
were in desperate financial circum-
stances. They wanted someone to
give them new courage and tell them

White House Vignettes

Those who remember the dark de-
pression days of 1932 sometimes
ask me what I remember best about
the campaign swing Father took that
year around the country.

First and foremost, I remember the
faces of the people who came to see
and hear him. Sometimes our train
stopped only for servicing, but even
at these stops people came out just to
get a glimpse of the candidate. Some-
times Father went out on the rear
platform and talked briefly to those
gathered around; at other times he
remained seated and waved through
the windows.

His car was the last one on the
train, and his favorite seat was the
last one on the right-hand side. I
watched Father as he sat for long
periods, gazing at the countryside as
the train rolled along. Occasionally,
he would speak of the productive
possibilities in that part of the coun-
try and of the difficulties facing the

how they could get out of their pre-
dicament.

They didn’t come to see Father
just because they were members of
the Democratic Party and wanted to
cheer a political candidate. They
looked and listened critically, and
he localized what he had to say so
that people who heard him knew
he was thinking of their problems as
well as of problems facing the people
in other sections of the country.

Father realized that people were
in need of laughter. There was not
much cheer in their lives in those
days. When he went out on the back
platform of our train, with his hand
on my brother Jimmy’s arm, he
would first give a brief but serious
talk, and then he would introduce
the crowd to “my little boy, Jimmy.”
Invariably, this produced laughter,
for Jimmy is six feet three. Polio had
caused Father to shrink about two
inches in height, so he was three