My Dad and FDR

The Roosevelt Family Crest

During the 6 weeks that my dad was dying, his sister, Helen, who lives now in Ohio, visited several times. During one of her visits, she just had to tell a story about Dad that deserves re-telling. I should say now that Dad did not deny it, nor could he tell what had happened to the proof of the telling. He just averted his eyes and laughed.

My grandmother, Bessie Foster Doak, had a cousin, who must have been her best friend as well, as they stayed in touch and visited regularly throughout their lives. This cousin, known to me as Aunt Effy, was married to an incredible entrepreneur, named Severn Loeffler. Uncle Sef had done some incredible things in his lifetime - a real rags to riches story, apparently. He started off getting young boys to sell shoe strings on the streets of Washington. Later, during the Depression, he sold box lunches to the government and WPA workers, with this slogan - A good box lunch, during hard times, will only cost you, one thin Dime, or something like that anyway.

Uncle Sef built a huge roller skating rink in Washington, DC, (Dad said it drew in lots of soldiers) that had an ice rink beneath the wood floor, and brought the Norwegian beauty and Olympic gold metalist, Sonje Henne to the US to perform there - sort of an Ice Capades type show, I guess. (After coming to the US via Uncle Sef, she went on to Hollywood and became the highest paid actress at that time.)

It was said that Uncle Sef also sold the first ice cream cone in the District of Columbia.

But when I knew them, he owned the leases for the golf courses in Washington on the Tidal Basin and at Rock Creek Park, as well as many other businesses. Being a success in the golf course business, he and Aunt Effy took a world tour, visiting golf courses all around the world. He sent home 2 stuffed Koala Bears from Australia for my brother and me, and Dad had a wonderful Japanese lacquered parasol sent from Japan. During this round the world trip, he saw something in France, and brought the idea here, and built one at the Tidal Basin course. It was America's first miniature golf course.

(Dad was quite a patriot and wanted his sons to sight-see Washington. He took first my brother and cousin Chip, and years later, cousin Earl and me, to tour Washington and all of the landmarks, including Quantico, where Dad had finished his war time duty, in OCS, and each time stayed as house guests of Uncle Sef and Aunt Effy. On the first trip, in the late 50's I guess, he called Dad over to the front window to look out to see Rocky and Chip talking to 2 little girls on their bikes on the street. He asked Dad if he knew who they were and Dad had no clue. "They're the Vice-President's daughters. Nixon just lives up the street." When Earl and I were there, Dad called a politician he knew to arrange a White House tour for us, a visit to Congress, and lunch in the Congressional cafeteria, and we rode in the underground people-mover train. I cannot swear to it, but I remember very well looking up at this man who was hosting us, and I think that it was a young Orrin Hatch, who had been a friend of Dad's when he was a young lawyer in Pittsburgh.) Back to the story......

It was Uncle Sef's many contacts in the government that put him in a position to ask for a White House tour for his wife's visiting nephew and niece. I guess in those days, it wasn't so unusual for a private guided tour. So here we are. Aunt Helen described a Secret Service man - a possible embellishment- whose eyes must have been rolling with boredom, having to walk these 2 kids from Carnegie, PA through the White House on a personal tour. (When I was 14, I had a personal tour by the warden himself, of the Delaware State Penitentary - hardly the White House!) There are quite a few years difference in their ages, so perhaps Dad was i high school and Aunt Helen a grade schooler. Anyway, back to the story, when they were shown into the basement where FDR's swimming pool was installed, Aunt Helen said that there was a wooden bench off to the side, and above it, a line of hooks, from which hung old fashioned men's swimming suits, each with a patch sewn on with the Roosevelt family crest.

When they left the pool area, one of the suits was missing its patch. Apparently this guard was distracted long enough for Dad to take out his pocket knife and cut the stitching and pocket one, so he could take home a real White House souvenir.