I didn't know that

I learned something new today

     Last fall PBS ran a Ken Burns series on The Roosevelts.  The 7 part series focused on Teddy, Eleanor, And Franklin.
     I knew FDR had polio.  I did not know that in high school, or I don't think I did.  Nobody seemed to mention it in passing.
     Watching the series today I was amazed that he contracted this childhood disease when he was 39!   I just assumed he was a child; never knew he was an adult.
      He was up north at Campobello when he became sick:  high temperature, chills, numbness in one leg, then another.  But the doctors there did not seem to be able to diagnose the disease.
     He had been a vice presidential candidate, campaigning across the country for Al Smith.   FDR was active, and the disease hit him and all those around him hard.
     He never recovered the use of his legs.  He learned to "walk" by swinging one leg in front, then swinging the other, all the time holding on to his crutches and having someone close buy just in case he slipped.
     Newsreels showed him swimming in Warm Springs, Georgia, trying to strengthen his withered lower limbs, but to no avail.
     One newsreel clip had him getting out of a car.  He turned to the cameramen and said, "No pictures boys."  And the press obliged.
     Can you imagine that today?  The press would be all over that, taking pictures of everything he attempted to do, but couldn't.
     He also had a mistress or two along the way.  The press never mentioned that in his campaigns either.
     And Eleanor built a summer cottage for her and her two friends, women suffragettes who were most likely involved romantically.
     Could the religious right have a field day with that family!
     Anyway, the series featured early films of Teddy speaking and lots of pictures.
     One picture caused me to stop, go back, and look again.
     He was speaking from the back of a train and in the background, there was a hotel with kids sitting on the roof over the first floor porch.
     Teddy did campaign in Rochelle, giving a speech off the back end of a railroad car.  I wondered if the hotel I saw in the background was what is now the DeLos Hotel.  Jackie said she didn't think so, and I am not very sure either.
     But it would be neat if it was.
     I once read that FDR was never pictured in the media while on crutches.  He was always sitting down, behind a podium, in a car, but never shown in an image that portrayed any kind of physical weakness.
     After all, he was the president and could not appear weak to other world leaders.
     Sometimes I miss those good old days.