Posted on May 8, 2016
What FDR Knew About Managing Fear in Times of Change
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Did your parents experience the Great Depression? Care to share their story?
What FDR Knew About Managing Fear in Times of Change
Posted from hbr.org
American History
Leadership
Politics
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 8
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I was deleting some old e-mails and I found this one from my mother.
She was 18 in 1945 when Roosevelt died on April 12.
"I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was at Tennessee
Wesleyan. Even though it
was still early Spring, it was a warm day and some friends and I had
gone to the home of a
lovely woman in Athens to swim. She had told us we could come any
time. When we re-turned to the campus, I went to Lawrence Hall, not my
dorm, to a friend's room and, weary
from the exercise and heat, I flopped on a bed and went sound to sleep.
Later, someone came dashing into the room and announced that FDR had
died. I was flabbergasted. He was
like my father. I, although 18, had never known any other President.
None of us could believe
it and we sat around morosely talking in hushed tones about him. I
remember being aware
of the thousands who lined the railroad tracks as his body was taken
from Warm Springs to
Washington. I remember the tears of everyone, including mine, but
especially those of so
many blacks, many males, too, as they prayed and watched the train
slowly moving past where they stood. Of course this was all seen in
newsreels in the movies and in newspapers.
While I was in college, I hardly ever listened to radio. I did not
even have one, but on the day
the Nazis surrendered in Germany, I was standing in a parlor in Ritter
Hall at TWC with my
most dear friend Madame Emmy Land Wolff,[a German Jewish lady] and you
can imagine what this meant to her.
She nearly squeezed my hand off as we listened and tears rolled down
her face. This meant
that in time she could return to her homeland and regain some of the
property and money
that the Nazis had confiscated.
Well, son, thanks for reminding me. Those were momentous times. That summer of 1945, I went to work for awhile at Oak Ridge,
and on returning home to
Cedartown to prepare for my invasion of UTC and Chattanooga, the bombs
were dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the beginning of the present nuclear era. I
was dumbfounded to
learn I had been working to facilitate the making of those atom bombs.
[Mama worked in the typing pool]
In one sense, I owe my life to Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he became
President in 1932,
somehow food became more available, clothes were made available to
those who needed them, and plants and mills began to re-open so that
people could go back to work. As young
as I was, I could immediately see a new optimism and hopefulness among
the people of my
small hometown. I remember jobless young men going off to work in the
forests through the
CCC and jobless husbands found work to do in building, road work, and
other enterprises
through the WPA. I taught in a school in Lakeview which had been built
by the WPA. Suffice
it to say that Roosevelt's optimism and great personality brought about
great changes in the
country, and I never have been hungry again. Thanks for reminding me
that today, April 12,
2005 is the sixtieth anniversary of his death. He was truly great and
I loved him."
She was 18 in 1945 when Roosevelt died on April 12.
"I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was at Tennessee
Wesleyan. Even though it
was still early Spring, it was a warm day and some friends and I had
gone to the home of a
lovely woman in Athens to swim. She had told us we could come any
time. When we re-turned to the campus, I went to Lawrence Hall, not my
dorm, to a friend's room and, weary
from the exercise and heat, I flopped on a bed and went sound to sleep.
Later, someone came dashing into the room and announced that FDR had
died. I was flabbergasted. He was
like my father. I, although 18, had never known any other President.
None of us could believe
it and we sat around morosely talking in hushed tones about him. I
remember being aware
of the thousands who lined the railroad tracks as his body was taken
from Warm Springs to
Washington. I remember the tears of everyone, including mine, but
especially those of so
many blacks, many males, too, as they prayed and watched the train
slowly moving past where they stood. Of course this was all seen in
newsreels in the movies and in newspapers.
While I was in college, I hardly ever listened to radio. I did not
even have one, but on the day
the Nazis surrendered in Germany, I was standing in a parlor in Ritter
Hall at TWC with my
most dear friend Madame Emmy Land Wolff,[a German Jewish lady] and you
can imagine what this meant to her.
She nearly squeezed my hand off as we listened and tears rolled down
her face. This meant
that in time she could return to her homeland and regain some of the
property and money
that the Nazis had confiscated.
Well, son, thanks for reminding me. Those were momentous times. That summer of 1945, I went to work for awhile at Oak Ridge,
and on returning home to
Cedartown to prepare for my invasion of UTC and Chattanooga, the bombs
were dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the beginning of the present nuclear era. I
was dumbfounded to
learn I had been working to facilitate the making of those atom bombs.
[Mama worked in the typing pool]
In one sense, I owe my life to Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he became
President in 1932,
somehow food became more available, clothes were made available to
those who needed them, and plants and mills began to re-open so that
people could go back to work. As young
as I was, I could immediately see a new optimism and hopefulness among
the people of my
small hometown. I remember jobless young men going off to work in the
forests through the
CCC and jobless husbands found work to do in building, road work, and
other enterprises
through the WPA. I taught in a school in Lakeview which had been built
by the WPA. Suffice
it to say that Roosevelt's optimism and great personality brought about
great changes in the
country, and I never have been hungry again. Thanks for reminding me
that today, April 12,
2005 is the sixtieth anniversary of his death. He was truly great and
I loved him."
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Sgt Joe LaBranche
Good read and story from your mom, Capt Walter Miller...thank you for sharing! You better put that away in a safe place, sir. Priceless!
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When my father was 10 years old, my grandfather told him the family could no longer afford him. He was turned out. He survived on the streets of Omaha. By the time he was 13, he ran with a protection gang that worked in stores and restaurants during the day and slept in the same establishments at night to prevent break-ins. They did it for meals and shelter. They had signals and if a break-in started and the would-be-burglar would be confronted by about 30 kids between 10 and 16 years old within about 5 minutes.
He was not an organized crime type, it was a legitimate group of turned out kids that protected their turf. Many of the kids ended up adopted officially or unofficially by the families whose business they protected. My Dad was taken in by an Italian family that had a restaurant. The end result is that he was the best Italian cook of Irish descent I ever knew.
He was not an organized crime type, it was a legitimate group of turned out kids that protected their turf. Many of the kids ended up adopted officially or unofficially by the families whose business they protected. My Dad was taken in by an Italian family that had a restaurant. The end result is that he was the best Italian cook of Irish descent I ever knew.
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Capt Daniel Goodman
That really is a very incredible story, honest; as I'd read what you'd said, I recalled seeing in the film Seabiscuit with Jeff bridges and Tobey mcquire an account depicted of the same comparably terrible thing evidently happening to the famous jockey when hed been a kid who'd ridden Seabiscuit historically a comparably tragic account, though, of course, that was only a cinematic depiction despite being apparently based on an actual incident in the jockey's life I'd gathered, the film was I recall exceptionally good as well at depicting the depression being narrated by the historian David McCulloch who also narrated I recall the Ken Burns famous PBS civil war movie epic as well, just figured you might find that of interest, many thanks.
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Capt Daniel Goodman
Very terrible thing, very poignant and very thought provoking, honest, many thanks .
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Maj John Bell
Capt Daniel Goodman - My Dad never looked back upon it as a bad thing. He kept in touch with his brother and sister. He knew he ate better than them, was better clothed, and was warmer in the winters. He was there for my uncle when he was turned out.
In 1939, when he was 17, he enlisted in the Navy. He reunited with his father and mother just before he shipped overseas to the Pacific theater in 1942, for WWII. If he held a grudge against my Grandfather, I never saw any evidence of it.
My Grandfather was a racist, religious-bigot and a mean-spirited, alcoholic SOB. My Dad's experiences formed him into something else. He was always happy or at least cheerful in the crappiest of situations. Things were always going to get better. He assumed that everyone he met was going to be a good friend. And he believed that contentment came from what you do, not what you have. My dad was Kind of a cross between Mr. Rogers and a well mannered pit bull with years in the fighting ring.
In 1939, when he was 17, he enlisted in the Navy. He reunited with his father and mother just before he shipped overseas to the Pacific theater in 1942, for WWII. If he held a grudge against my Grandfather, I never saw any evidence of it.
My Grandfather was a racist, religious-bigot and a mean-spirited, alcoholic SOB. My Dad's experiences formed him into something else. He was always happy or at least cheerful in the crappiest of situations. Things were always going to get better. He assumed that everyone he met was going to be a good friend. And he believed that contentment came from what you do, not what you have. My dad was Kind of a cross between Mr. Rogers and a well mannered pit bull with years in the fighting ring.
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Capt Daniel Goodman
I follow I'm glad of course he viewed the whole thing in that light obviously many thanks.
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I remember my parents telling us how my father literally worked on a slow boat to China,actually a freighter / passenger ship as a cook that job broke up the family for a short time because of the length of his voyages we managed to save some photos pre WWII of the South Pacific
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