knots in my kite string

fdr-fala:

That’s My Chair

“My father had been working with FDR since the time he first become governor. By 1944, he was special counsel to the president. This story took place in early September of 1944. I had just turned 13. I had returned from a summer working on a farm in a camp in Vermont. On the way bock, I spent time in a house my parents rented that summer in Hyde Park. I was returning to Washington, D.C., to go back to school. I took the president’s train with my father and the president and Fala. We were sitting in the parlor car in the bock of the train. My father and FDR were talking. Fala was sitting on the floor sulking. He wasn’t paying attention to us at all. He looked hurt. I also noticed that the president did not seem very happy. I looked at my father, and he was frantically waving at me to move off the chair where I was sitting. I moved, and all of a sudden, Fala jumped on the chair where I had been sitting. Then he was smiling and very friendly. The president smiled and was also very happy. I was sitting on the chair that was apparently reserved for Fala.” — Robert Rosenman, son of Judge Samuel Rosenman, adviser to Franklin Roosevelt, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt for Kids by Richard Panchyk

Photo: National Archives