THE PRESIDENT was in the middle of his re-election campaign this week in 1936. He loved baseball, and could throw the first ball in any major stadium if he wanted to. But FDR chose a boys’ club near his home, the Hyde Park Robin Hoods. Hyde Park was formerly known as Stoutenburgh, named for the guy who built the town. The Stoutenburgs came from Amersfoort.
Always with a smile on his face, he was the president of everyone, not just his own party. He pulled America out of a depression without blaming others.
He couldn’t walk and he couldn’t stand, but he didn’t complain a word about that. He did not complain about anything at all, did not take it into his head to say that he was so unfairly criticized. Franklin Roosevelt, descendant of the Van Dijcks from Utrecht, the van Noortstrant family from Friesland, Van Schaik from Houten, Schuyler from Amsterdam, Bogaert from Leerdam, Roelofs and Olfertsen from Heerenveen, Kunst from Alkmaar, de Lannooij from Leiden, and Claes van Rosenvelt from Tholen, pulled America out of the Great Depression, and then won a world war on two fronts.
And he did it all from a wooden wheelchair. Or from a car seat if necessary.
