106

The Woman with Woman’s Digest

June

MY LIFE WITH F. D. R.

Continued from

attention whenever the American flag
passed us by in a parade or whenever
the national anthem was played, and
not to whisper or ask questions at such
moments, as small youngsters are
prone to do.

During our first years in Washing-
ton, Father organized a couple of
baseball teams made up evenly of
young adults his age, and Jimmy and
me and our friends. We played in
beautiful Rock Creek Park. One day
a new recruit for one of the teams
appeared on the scene. He was a
British friend of Mother’s and Fa-
ther’s, six feet five inches in height
and powerfully built. At that time he
was a young attache at the British
Embassy. Later he became Britain’s
ambassador to the United States, Sir
Ronald Lindsey.

Jimmy and I watched and listened
as Father explained baseball to the
new recruit. To our young ears and
eyes it was obvious that this young
man was a complete neophyte and,
therefore, grist for our mischievous
mill. Most seriously we stepped up
and offered to coach the Britisher.
He quickly accepted and confessed
his ignorance with great humility.

With completely straight faces we
told our pupil he must learn to
“slide for bases” and that to accom-
plish this feat he must dive head-
first for the bag. To our great joy,
Father called out from across the
field at that moment that we were

by Anna Roosevelt

page 60

ready to start. And to help our ne-
farious plans, our British friend was
second up at bat. He made a hit and
negotiated first base without need of
diving. Then we decided to do a
little cheating and whispered in his
ear that he should try to sneak to
second base. This he did, and as he
neared the bag, Jimmy and I yelled
in unison, “Slide, slide!” It’s not hard
to imagine our shrieks of delight as
he made his dive and slid along the
ground with arms outstretched. He
was rather slow to rise and was im-
mediately surrounded by his solici-
tous contemporaries. Then, of course,
it was discovered that he had skinned
his knees, arms and hands, and torn
his clothes.

Jimmy and I stayed at a discreet
distance, but we heard Father telling
Mr. Lindsey of his mistaken interpre-
tation of sliding for a base, and Mr.
Lindsey’s explanation of who had
taught him. Father called us over,
gave us a terrific scolding and made
us apologize. We were greatly cha-
grined and afraid we would be for-
bidden to play for the rest of the day,
but the Englishman saved the day
for us by being a wonderful sport.
He suddenly burst out laughing,
broke the tension, and in a minute
we were all doing what we had
wanted to do from the beginning—
laughing at the remembered specta-
cle of the “dive” and the very sur-
prised look on the victim’s face.