United States Presidents

(as told by Vernon Work Myers)

I don’t remember Hoover but he spoke like an undertaker. The stock market would go down every time he spoke. Roosevelt was so different. He was a great orator. People either liked or disliked Roosevelt. It was hard to find anyone in between. My family tended to vote Republican but I think my parents voted for Roosevelt. I remember when he spoke when he was first elected: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He was a spellbinder. He spoke with a very upper class accent. He didn’t speak like we did. In the science lab we used to call him Antimony. Antimony is Sb. You didn’t want to say the other meaning for Sb.

Harry Truman wasn’t a great speaker either but he was a very capable person.

ELIZABETH PERKINS BUCHHEIT: Harry Truman was the last president that never went to college.

(as told by Elizabeth Perkins Buchheit)

John F. Kennedy was a spellbinder and everybody was very taken with him and the rest of his family.  His father was a big crook.  He made all his money on Prohibition with the syndicate, the mob.  He was rum running from Canada and was able to get contracts when Prohibition ended.  He wanted to get his son Joe elected but Joe died in an accident in WWII.  Joe was flying with unknown cargo and it exploded over the channel.  So then they went to John.  John’s father wanted to be appointed Ambassador to Great Britain.  So he got appointed as ambassador and in Great Britain they thought he was the densest thing they’d ever seen.