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nivek

As Above So Below
 

wwkirk

Divine
FDR defends the integrity of his dog, Fala.
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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
FDR defends the integrity of his dog, Fala.
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Love it ! I grew up in Hyde Park. FDR built all the schools around here and my Mom and Aunt met the man and his dog more than once when they came to visit.

Old family stories. My grandfather was sitting on the front porch having a smoke when FDR cruised by in his blue convertible and waved ‘hi Mike!’ Had the king and queen of England in back at the time. They watched him pull himself with leg braces up in to the town hall to vote. We had ‘G-men’ in our house, on the roof and in the yard. Much later Gram used to run into Eleneaor in the Grand Union.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Not clear although it's minor. The town hall was directly across the street, hence the g-men all over the place. No doubt Gram kept them well supplied with coffee and snacks.

There are remnants of the communications network still in place. A ring of fences and very small concrete block looking things for phones and who knows what. It covers a mile or two of Hudson riverfront and includes FDR and the Vanderbilt properties, both of which we regularly walk through. The Vanderbilt mansion right next door has a really cool Swiss Chalet structure that is basically the garage. Full of antique cars and sleighs that are literally sitting in the exact same spot they were when I was a kid. No longer open to the public but visible if you know where to look, and where to climb. During the war the place was host to tanks. With all sorts of dignitaries visiting there was concern of some sort of u-boat commando attack. No idea how practical that would be but U-47 did get into Scapa Flow so it probably wasn't out of the question.
 
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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Not the best pics but that's just the garage - the house I grew up on is only a couple of hundred yards up the river hill. Can't see it here but that cool old stone bridge is maybe 60 feet long but stands 30-40 feet over a big creek and waterfall. I can easily imagine Richard Burton as part of some commando team that has to hold it .......


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wwkirk

Divine
Not the best pics but that's just the garage - the house I grew up on is only a couple of hundred yards up the river hill. Can't see it here but that cool old stone bridge is maybe 60 feet long but stands 30-40 feet over a big creek and waterfall. I can easily imagine Richard Burton as part of some commando team that has to hold it .......


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I know it's not your point, but were your grandparents rich? Even if not, they lived in a wonderful looking area.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I know it's not your point, but were your grandparents rich? Even if not, they lived in a wonderful looking area.

Hell no, nobody in my family was rich - that's for sure. We did live in a really cool pre-Civil War house though. Upstate NY is known for its 'Greek Revival' style homes - as if I really know what the hell that is. They all look similar though.

Hyde Park existed basically to serve the Vanderbilts and the New York Central Railroad. It's where all the hired help and farm workers came from. There were - and still are - a number of Gilded Age structures around here. Chelsea Clinton was married in one of the weirder ones. Nobles and serfs, basically.

Western Publishing was headquartered in Racine Wisconsin along with most of my family. When they opened a plant here in Poughkeepsie in 1934 my grandfather moved out here, he was a lithographer. They were also a big employer for years, hence the bourgeois.
 
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