Baseball, boats, and music

A butterfly in the garden of the FDR home

Cooperstown would be just any other small town in New York if it wasn’t for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Our beloved Nationals have been having a rough year, especially the last week or so, with the trading of Murphy to the Cubs. But we still enjoyed the Baseball Hall of Fame and learning more about the giants in baseball’s history. The way baseball brought the country together through wars and racism reminds us of why we love to go to the ballgames. Even if we are sitting with those rooting for the opposition we respect each other and can genuinely sympathize when they lose.

The legends like Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Jackie Robinson still inspire awe in us. It is hard for us to understand why race was such a barrier in something like baseball but then I am sure we will someday look back at how race still creates barriers today and wonder how we cannot see that we are all brothers and sisters in God’s eyes. There is even a section in the Baseball Hall of Fame for the history of women in baseball- so many interesting stories!

I had sons who would have loved to be baseball stars but had wonderful years in the Little League that I still miss. From sitting beneath blankets in the early spring to sweating through the August tournaments, watching your sons play baseball is worth every discomfort.

Babe Ruth's uniform in front of a photo of him wearing it on his last day as a Yankee

The Franklin D. Roosevelt museum in Hyde Park, NY was an inspiring day for us. From the creation of jobs to improve the infrastructure of this country to the leadership during WWII, FDR led and united the country like few have since. He was the first president to be able to have “Fireside Chats” with the country over the radio. Picturing families sitting around the radio and listening with intense interest- because his policies directly affected everyone – was part of the museum.

Eleanor's bedroom

FDR's wheelchair in the elevator at his home.  FDR was known for his ability to connect with ordinary citizens.  Many believe his empathy for the down trodden was rooted in his personal experience with polio.

Springwood- the home where FDR was born and where his children were born.  Roosevelt was not a perfect President.  His internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II may be the blackest mark against him.  Not everything he tried in the New Deal worked.  He bent to Southern politicians when he exempted housekeepers and farm laborers, primarily black workers, from the minimum wage.  But his policies and programs saved the banks, established banking rules that restored confidence in the financial system, began infrastructure projects to put Americans back to work and did much more to give the public faith that the future would be better.  I recommend 2 books about FDR during the war years.  They are the first 2 books of a trilogy written by Nigel Hamilton.  The first is The Mantle of Command and the second Commander in Chief.  They are the war year memoirs FDR did not have the chance to write.  We were lucky to have had a President with the experience, education and intellect to guide the US through the great depression and WW II.  The books illuminate FDR's strategic thinking that often went against top military leaders but was proven correct in the end.  He lead with tact, persuasion and a keen sense of what was possible.  He knew he had to unite the country to achieve victory in the war.  (by Steve)

Eleanor was one of the first First Ladies to make her own mark in the politics of the day. Inviting  Marion Anderson to sing in front of the Lincoln Memorial while the Daughters of the American Revolution refused her made an important statement. Sometimes when Franklin could not be two places at once, she would speak in his place and left no one in doubt about her beliefs about what was good for this country.

Franklin and Eleanor’s personal lives have filled books, but what stands out at Hyde Park is their love of nature, the beautiful Hudson river, and their children. Losing one son early in his life had to put a mark on them that led to their understanding of suffering even though they both came from very wealthy backgrounds.

Thursday we drove to Connecticut. We spent Friday at the Mystic Seaport Museum and learned about boats from the Vikings to current times. We boarded the Charles W. Morgan, a large whaling ship. It boggles my mind that when they had harpooned a whale, they took it on board in pieces, cut it up in smaller sections, boiled the oil out of it, stored the oil in barrels in the hull and did not come home to unload for several years at a time. Whale oil was so valuable for fuel and lighting in that century. 

The Charles W. Morgan.  Built in 1841, it would make 37 whaling expeditions over 80 years.  

The town around the harbor, where there are many kinds of boats, mostly sail boats, has maintained a lot of the shops as they were in the 19th century. We could visit the "cooper" who made the barrels, see the blacksmith work the bellows to heat iron, and see where the sailors bought their food, clothing and personal items in a general store. We also enjoyed seeing an old printing press press documents. 

A cooper making the staves for a barrel.  All work in this shop is done by hand, the way it would have been done in 1841.  Many barrels were custom made to fit in tight spaces of a whaling ship.  They would be filled with water to act as ballast when the ship first left port.  When the barrel was needed to hold whale oil, the water would be pumped out.  

Nadene refused to get in the barrel with me.

Then we had to eat at Mystic Pizza, where they still play the 1988 movie starring Julia Roberts in the movie by that name. The pizza was great!

Their slogan is, 'The Pizza that Made the Movie Famous'

We began and ended the week with music! Which is fitting for us -  as we have been listening to a lot of music on the radio and from our phones. We can play music from the speaker outside so sitting in our chairs under the trees and listening to music while we read or talk is very pleasant.

Sunday afternoon we found a concert at the Caroga Lake Music Festival in Caroga Lake, NY. We enjoyed pieces by Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, and other less well-known (to us) composers. We were struck by the youth of the artists and yet many had their Master’s or Doctorate and already had careers that included broad experiences and performances. Violins, viola, bass, and cello dominated most pieces, but the bassoon was a fun addition to one piece.

Something we just 'happened across.'  These chance encounters turn out to be some our best experiences and memories.  The musicians were superb professionals with worldwide resumes. 

We ended the week with an outdoor concert at the Mystic Seaport Museum featuring “Penny Lane”, a group of older men who are trying to reproduce the music of the Beatles as closely as possible. They did really well and had the whole audience  standing and singing and swaying and begging for more at the end. We estimated that most of the audience was our age and had a lifetime of memories that came with the songs. Our favorite, Golden Slumbers, is a difficult one to play and sing but they carried it well. At one point they put on the costumes that the Beatles wore on their album Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band.

Not as good as the real thing but still lots of fun.  This group is from the Isle of Long.

Penny Lane in front of an 18th century church in Mystic, CT

The death of John McCain yesterday has brought both sides of our divided country to a realization that we need heroes and look for greatness in our leaders. Whether it is baseball, music, or politics, it is the personal stories of triumph over hardship, faith over doubt, perseverance over giving up, and honor over deceit that win our hearts and keep us together as a country.