FDR,s Fala Speech

This is an excerpt from a speech made by President Roosevelt during the 1944 presidential campaign in which he responds to Republican assertions that he had left his dog Fala in the Aleution Islands and had sent a destroyer to pick him up at great cost to the taxpayers.

It is quite obvious in this clip that FDR was in declining health. Although he was reelected for a fourth term he died the following April.

How Baseballs Are Made

This video shows how major league baseballs are manufactured.

Big league baseball teams never use brand new baseballs directly from the box in a game. They're too shiny to play with. Prior to a game umpires, or individuals supervised by the umpires, rub the balls with a rubbing mud, which is smooth and creamy, but with a fine grit. The composition of the mud is a secret, but the base ingredient is known to be mud from a specific site in a tributary of the Delaware River.

A major league baseball costs about $17.25 and has an average life of 7 pitches.

Odd Vehicle

Check out this strange 1930's bus-like vehicle, the Evans Autorailer, capable of travelling on both roads and rail.

Giggles

Word Riddle

I got this video in an Email today from a friend so I don't know its source and can't credit its creator. Before watching the video I tried unsuccessfully to find the English word which continued to be a valid word each time one letter was removed right down until only one letter remained. But I made the assumption that letters would be removed in order, and thus never would have been successful.

Train Snow Plowing

Wheeeeee......!!! I love it! There are lots of videos of trains snow plowing on YouTube. This is one of my favorites.

Death of Franklin Roosevelt

I was six years old when President Franklin Roosevelt died. I remember we were eating in our dining room when a boy came to our side porch shouting "Extra! Extra! The President is dead!" It was the only time in my life that I can recall newsboys going through neighborhoods to sell papers.

Of course my father bought a copy. In my mind's eye I can still see the large black letters of the headline and the huge photograph of the President on the front page. It was the moment when the concept of death registered in my mind. My grandmother had died when I was four but I don't recall it having much an effect on me, other than I knew my mother was sad.

It is amazing how events that at the time are monumental quickly pass from the public's consciousness. Roosevelt was a giant on the national and world scene. He was elected President four times by landslides, leading the nation through the Great Recession and to victory in World War 2. It was almost as if God Himself was dead. But today Franklin Roosevelt is just another name that students have to memorize for History class.

This YouTube video is from a newsreel of the time. In those times, before television, the weekly newsreel at the movie theater was how we saw the major events in the world.

Color Film from World War I

This is one of several videos of World War 1 in color that I found on YouTube. It was an eerie feeling watching the artillery scenes. My father fought in WW1 in the US Army artillery. He had significant loss of hearing in one ear from the big bangs and also had been gassed.

With the recent death of the last living American veteran of WW1 there are now only two known surviving veterans of that conflict, each 110 years old.