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Calvin Coolidge Skipped Town and Went Fishing for Three Months (While He was President) · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you so much for
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Speaker 1: tuning in. If you've been paying attention to UH to
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Speaker 1: domestic US politics, you may have noticed that the current president,
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Speaker 1: Donald Trump has been receiving a little bit of criticism
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Speaker 1: for his golf habit and his trips to Mara Lago
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Speaker 1: in Florida. As a matter of fact, one of the
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Speaker 1: things people point out in January was that the County
0:52
Speaker 1: of Palm Beach estimates that his recent golf trips have
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Speaker 1: cost around thirteen point eight million, and just for local security. However,
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Speaker 1: today's story is about a time when that wasn't maybe
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Speaker 1: so bad. Hi, I'm Ben, Hey, Ben, I know it's sure.
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Speaker 1: You're talking about just local security. So that's just the
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Speaker 1: hit that the local infrastructure and law enforcement takes, not
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Speaker 1: to mention like all of the Secret Service and stuff on,
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Speaker 1: you know, the taxpayer side of things that goes into
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Speaker 1: a trip like that in this day and age. Right,
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Speaker 1: but back, let's travel back in time, back to a
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Speaker 1: simpler time, back to in Calvin Coolidge, the coolest name
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Speaker 1: in presidential history was the president, right, and technically the
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Speaker 1: coolest only because our super producer, Casey Pegram has not
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Speaker 1: yet accepted the people's call for him to run for office.
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Speaker 1: But hey, Casey, I think you and I talked about
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Speaker 1: this off air. Awhile ago. Uh you you said you
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Speaker 1: would never want that job. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct.
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Speaker 1: That's um, that's a job for somebody else. Okay, well,
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Speaker 1: well we'll keep you in mind for an ambassadorship. Yes.
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Speaker 1: Alvin Coolidge, I love alliteration. Uh, as a bend bowling myself.
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Speaker 1: Calvin Coolidge served as the thirtie president of the US
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Speaker 1: from nineteen twenty three to nineteen twenty nine, and, like
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Speaker 1: many presidents regardless of what political party you find yourself in, uh,
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Speaker 1: he was the subject of no small amount of criticism.
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Speaker 1: The famously witty and sharp tongue social critic H. L.
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Speaker 1: Mankin once described Coolidge's administration this way. Coolidge's chief feat,
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Speaker 1: wrote Mankin, was to sleep more than any other president.
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Speaker 1: Not only was he lazy, but his perpetually dour expressions
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Speaker 1: seemed to indicate he had been quote weaned on a
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Speaker 1: pickle ouch hl harsh words. I love how he's characterized
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Speaker 1: as a quote professional deflator in this article from South
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Speaker 1: Dakota Magazine. So, yeah, it's true, and he he wasn't alone.
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Speaker 1: A lot of social critics from the time would certainly
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Speaker 1: rag on our boy Coolidge. Um Mankin in particular was
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Speaker 1: one of the most acid tongue of the lot. But
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Speaker 1: but he did kind of speak for the zeitgeist at
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Speaker 1: the time. There there was a sense that Coolidge was
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Speaker 1: a bit of a do nothing president, a bit of
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Speaker 1: a lazy bones let's say, right, yeah, it was actually
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Speaker 1: and this is again according to South Dakota Magazine, difficult
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Speaker 1: to find people who had over the top, extraordinarily good
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Speaker 1: things to say about President Coolidge. A lot of it
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Speaker 1: had to do with just his demeanor. He was not
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Speaker 1: a particularly good order, which just we know makes a
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Speaker 1: huge difference in the way a president is perceived. He wasn't.
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Speaker 1: He was a little bit. He was considered kind of
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Speaker 1: borish and a little bit ghost in his social behavior,
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Speaker 1: and just wasn't particularly clever in the way he comported himself.
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Speaker 1: And he just didn't have very very good people skills.
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Speaker 1: Let's say, right bedside manner goes a long way. He
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Speaker 1: was not quick on his feet in terms of the
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Speaker 1: funny factor. Uh, he was shy. He didn't have a
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Speaker 1: lot of the social niceties that would be expected of
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Speaker 1: the time. One of his common monikers or nicknames was
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Speaker 1: silent cal Uh and people said he spoke as if
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Speaker 1: he expected to live for one hundred years, but feared
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Speaker 1: he had only been given enough words to last fifty years.
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Speaker 1: The literati, the tastemakers of the time said that he
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Speaker 1: was just He was at best incredibly dull, if not
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Speaker 1: a genuine patent fool. That's right. And the business community
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Speaker 1: liked him just fine, mainly because he didn't really do
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Speaker 1: anything to upset the apple cart. You know, he was
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Speaker 1: not pushing through some kind of crazy agenda of reforms
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Speaker 1: that would have helped or hindered the business community. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: as far as they were concerned, he was just fine
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Speaker 1: because he was allowing the status quo to remain, which
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Speaker 1: was quite lucrative. He was an establishment candidate, that's true.
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Speaker 1: The we're we're painting a pretty um I wouldn't say inaccurate,
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Speaker 1: but we're painting a pretty critical picture of Coolidge at
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Speaker 1: this time. We do have to remember that he was
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Speaker 1: still the president, which meant that whenever he was doing something,
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Speaker 1: whatever he was doing people would follow him, especially the press.
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Speaker 1: So this gave some people in Black Hills, South Dakota
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Speaker 1: an idea. They had the lightbulb moment. Then Senator Peter
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Speaker 1: Norbeck and a couple of his compatriots said, you know what,
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Speaker 1: let's invite the President for a visit to Black Hills,
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Speaker 1: South Dakota. And for some reason everything just worked out.
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Speaker 1: Fortune smiled upon them and good old silent cal agreed
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Speaker 1: to show up. We should point out also, this is
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Speaker 1: in the days before air conditioning, which historians believe may
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Speaker 1: have played a role. Yeah, and it's easy to forget that,
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Speaker 1: Um Washington, d C was sort of a planned community
6:06
Speaker 1: a plane, you know, a city that was built for
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Speaker 1: a purpose a k a. The government on a quite
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Speaker 1: large swamp um And and when the summer months would hit,
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Speaker 1: residents there um would be reminded of that fact by
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Speaker 1: its muggy, stifling nastiness. Yeah. I've spent a lot of
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Speaker 1: time at d C. When I was first going up there,
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Speaker 1: especially in the spring and summer, I was so naive.
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Speaker 1: I just you look at the place on a map
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Speaker 1: and you think, oh, it's it doesn't look like it's
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Speaker 1: very far south, but it is still incredibly muggy. It's
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Speaker 1: still definitely a swamp. That is not any kind of
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Speaker 1: political statement. It's just environmentally, it is swamp weather. And
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Speaker 1: this is especially tough for Coolidge because he had bronchitis,
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Speaker 1: and that kind of air can be very difficult for
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Speaker 1: you if you have that condition. A wet, kind of sticky,
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Speaker 1: muggy situation not good. They always tend to people that
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Speaker 1: have chronic bronchial conditions or respiratory conditions are always um
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Speaker 1: encouraged to go to where the air is dry. Two
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Speaker 1: more arid climates like New Mexico or Arizona or California,
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Speaker 1: which were the Tombstone fans in the audience. Is how
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Speaker 1: Doc Holiday ended up working with Wide Earth because of
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Speaker 1: his consumption he had moved out West Coolidge, of course,
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it, in my opinion, based just on
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Speaker 1: the fictional portrayals, not as cool as Doc Holiday. But
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Speaker 1: few people aside from Casey are we know that he
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Speaker 1: had gone a couple of other places in earlier attempts
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Speaker 1: to get away from that, Uh, that cloyone Washington swamp air. Right. Yes,
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Speaker 1: he was known to mass summer at the Massachusetts shore
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Speaker 1: and uh, the following that was in and then the
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Speaker 1: following year. Um, he went to the Adirondack Mountains where
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Speaker 1: they're famous for those chairs. Uh that that you often
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Speaker 1: seek large versions of. You ever seen giant Adirondack chairs
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Speaker 1: as some sort of like roadside attraction. Yeah. Uh, some
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Speaker 1: of my family members used to own one, a giant Adirondack.
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Speaker 1: They're fun for photo ops because you look really small
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Speaker 1: sitting in it. It looks like you're a tiny, tiny person.
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Speaker 1: This is an uncle of mine who had a collection
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Speaker 1: of bizarre to things. Um. Yeah, he also went to
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Speaker 1: Uh that was in twenty six that he went to
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Speaker 1: the Adirondacks, and then in twenty seven he went somewhere
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Speaker 1: west of the Alleghenies and east of the Rockies, so
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Speaker 1: South Dakota and Senator Norbech said we're gonna go all
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Speaker 1: in on this, So we're actually going to pass a
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Speaker 1: resolution in the state Congress inviting the president on January seventh,
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Speaker 1: nine seven. They said, it's weird this guy. Rex Allen
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Speaker 1: Smith notes they spared no adjectives when drafting it and
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Speaker 1: indulged in no false modesty. So they were really doing
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Speaker 1: the hard cell like an Oscar campaign, right, they're really
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Speaker 1: trying to woo the president to vote for vote for
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Speaker 1: the Black Hills. You know, lended his endorsement, right because
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Speaker 1: they were hoping this would be a boon for the
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Speaker 1: their tourism industry. Um so what did that campaign look like. Well,
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Speaker 1: you gotta admit their their game was on point, or
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Speaker 1: their their pattern, as you may hear it referred to
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Speaker 1: in the world of sales, was you know, left little
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Speaker 1: to be desired, lofty peaks, you know what I mean,
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Speaker 1: snow capped mountains, magnificent forests, fresh sparkling streams. They hit
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Speaker 1: on the ideal climate. But also they said, you know
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Speaker 1: there is We've got fishing, we've got golf, we've got polo,
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Speaker 1: we've got tennis, all splendid. That's right. They characterized the
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Speaker 1: people as well of this region. Uh quote the population
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Speaker 1: in and about the mountains, uh is intelligent and more. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: morality was really big at the time. Or calling people
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Speaker 1: moral was very big at the time, because they might
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Speaker 1: you know, there's one thing that no one was saying
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Speaker 1: about about Coolidge. They might have said he was boring,
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Speaker 1: might have borderline called him an idiot, but no one
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Speaker 1: really questioned his morality. Yeah, it didn't really come up.
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Speaker 1: They're too busy slamming him for literally everything else. Right,
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Speaker 1: And of course, you know, if you look at his
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Speaker 1: policies in the early twentieth century, they aged terribly and
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Speaker 1: they did perpetrate some oppressive systems, but that was par
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Speaker 1: for the course for the people in power of the day.
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Speaker 1: Senator Norbech travels to Washington, as you do when you're
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Speaker 1: a senator, and he delivers this invitation to Coolidge, where
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Speaker 1: Coolidge says one of the quote few funny things really
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Speaker 1: that he ever said during his time as president. This
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Speaker 1: whoever is writing this article for South Dakota Magazine is
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Speaker 1: is is really good at at zinging the president. Here
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Speaker 1: it's Roger Holtzman um and this is fantastic um. So
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Speaker 1: he quotes the President as saying, uh santata. I can't
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Speaker 1: tell whether this is a chapter from revelations of Moahammed's
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Speaker 1: idea of the seventh Heaven. And then again are our
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Speaker 1: witty South Dakota Magazine writer says, true to his nature,
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Speaker 1: though the president said nothing further that day. And like
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Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders, Calvin Coolidge is from Vermont jigital I think
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Speaker 1: by by the accident and the way he uh, the
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Speaker 1: way he casually references seventh heaven uh. There there is
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Speaker 1: one thing they want to interject it here. We have
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Speaker 1: to remember that during this time Black Hills, South Dakota
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Speaker 1: is on a on a larger mission to become more
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Speaker 1: prominent in the United States. Is when the construction on
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Speaker 1: Mount Rushmore began. You guys remember Mount Rushmore, right, it's
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Speaker 1: the It's the gigantic sculpture with sixty foot heads of presidents.
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Speaker 1: Not ostentatious at all. No, man, Coolidge is not one
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Speaker 1: of them. No, definitely not. But maybe if this trip
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Speaker 1: went differently, it would have been. So it must have
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Speaker 1: been a slow news cycle. They're in the roaring twenties,
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Speaker 1: because for the next month, almost all the daily papers
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Speaker 1: dedicated some part of their page space to speculating on
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Speaker 1: whether or not the president would actually come to Black Hills.
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Speaker 1: The administration did not officially reply until May, when Colonel
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Speaker 1: Starling and several Coolidge assistants arrived without prior announcement at
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Speaker 1: a train station in Rapid City. Well v train station
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Speaker 1: in Rapid City. It's in Rapid City. Sound like the
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Speaker 1: name of something from Pokemon. I don't know. Why. It
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Speaker 1: just sounds very like retro futuristic, like something from a
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Speaker 1: Mega Man game. Yeah, Rapid City makes me think like
13:02
Speaker 1: maybe it would also be the uh, the Weird, the
13:07
Speaker 1: Weird title of one of those mixed tapes you can
13:09
Speaker 1: find at a gas station. Also true. You know, I'm
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Speaker 1: assuming it has something to do with Whitewater rapids. That
13:16
Speaker 1: makes sense unless there there are a lot of a
13:19
Speaker 1: lot of on the edge physicists, study in time, or
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Speaker 1: just very quick people. They're very like impatient and rapid
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Speaker 1: City they get things done. Or horologist word of the day,
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Speaker 1: horology study of time. And Starling's uh diplomatic visit to
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Speaker 1: Rapid City Um created a real stir. Every major newspaper
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Speaker 1: in the entire state got word from the office of
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Speaker 1: Senator norbuck Um and they printed in their their following
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Speaker 1: subsequent editions Um the announcement that this likely, you know,
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Speaker 1: meant that Coolidge was going to arrive. The headline screamed
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Speaker 1: President Coolidge to arrive on June the six. So they
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Speaker 1: must have gotten a little bit of a scoop there
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Speaker 1: from from Norbech right, And maybe it was just the
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Speaker 1: power positive thinking. So we know that the whenever the
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Speaker 1: president travels then as now it's a big deal. Security
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Speaker 1: is high. There's a lot of logistical shuffling that goes on,
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Speaker 1: and now that they can be public with it, they
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Speaker 1: don't have to be as discreet. So they announced that
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Speaker 1: Coolidge will be residing at the State Game Lodge and
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Speaker 1: Custer State Park, UH staying in the Governor's suite, and
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Speaker 1: they give details about this that you know, the society
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Speaker 1: pages of the time are very interested in those details.
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Speaker 1: They also undertake a ton of last minute projects to
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Speaker 1: get everything in tip top shape and perfect. They put
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Speaker 1: gravel all along thirty two mile road between the summer
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Speaker 1: Lodge and the train station, and then they they start
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Speaker 1: rapid city executive offices in a high school. They install
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Speaker 1: a telephone switchboard that can connect the president directly to
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Speaker 1: d C. So it's like he's never really away, that's right.
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Speaker 1: So essentially they're establishing like a a situation room, a
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Speaker 1: base camp, you know, where none existed in a high
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Speaker 1: school like you do. And that switchboard you mentioned connected
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Speaker 1: directly to uh's referred to as I've never heard this
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Speaker 1: term before, the executive mansion in Washington, d C. So Wait,
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Speaker 1: is that separate from the White House. There's like another
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Speaker 1: domicile for the president. Or is this before the president
15:29
Speaker 1: took residence in the White House. The executive mansion is
15:33
Speaker 1: what you think of when you think of a picture
15:35
Speaker 1: of the White House. Oh, I've never heard that term
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Speaker 1: used before. It's interesting. Um. Right. So they also had
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Speaker 1: special planes just for the president's mail, and they had
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Speaker 1: to install special gas pumps to fuel up the presidential motorcade.
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Speaker 1: And Coolidge keeps his his entourage fairly small, especially considered
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Speaker 1: that he's the President of the United States. His wife
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Speaker 1: Grace is there with him with staff members, secret service
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Speaker 1: agents of course, uh, three dozen newspaper reporters glom on uh.
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Speaker 1: And then they take their their two dogs, rob Roy
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Speaker 1: and Prudence prim as well as their pet Raccoon. Rebecca.
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Speaker 1: Favorite detail about Rebecca She lived in a wicker basket.
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Speaker 1: Did we do an episode on weird presidential pets? And
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Speaker 1: this made the cut? I believe. I believe Rebecca does
16:28
Speaker 1: make an appearance. She is officially returning guests to Ridiculous History. Congratulations, Rebecca,
16:33
Speaker 1: you are joining the rarefied air with other famous guest
16:39
Speaker 1: of ours such as Rowan Nubi, Frank Moharron, Christopher haciotis
16:44
Speaker 1: tinker Bell the Frog. There was a crocodile in there.
16:47
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there definitely was a crocodile or a gator. Yeah.
16:51
Speaker 1: I think that the gator hung out on like the
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Speaker 1: Presidential golf course or something like that. And you know,
16:57
Speaker 1: you gotta take your raccoon. They're going out into nature.
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Speaker 1: I'm sure Rebecca loved it. So here's the thing we said.
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Speaker 1: It was a fishing trip, right. Coolidge was known for
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Speaker 1: fishing trips. Again, the society papers followed him pretty closely.
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Speaker 1: They reported on all his vacations and stuff. Uh. Then,
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Speaker 1: as in recent years, the implication always being how does
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Speaker 1: this person have time for vacation? Uh. This rep for
17:30
Speaker 1: being a fishing fanatic came about during the six New
17:35
Speaker 1: York vacation, the one we mentioned where he went to
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Speaker 1: the Adirondacks h And now that he was known as
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Speaker 1: a fisherman, the people of Dakota were saying, all right,
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Speaker 1: we're going to We're going to paint the Black Hills
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Speaker 1: as a fisher's paradise. That's right. And um, the takeaway
17:54
Speaker 1: here is that he actually fell a victim to one
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Speaker 1: of the earlier mentions of of the idea of a
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Speaker 1: fishing scam, but that's spelled f I s h I NERG,
18:05
Speaker 1: not what we know today as p h I s
18:07
Speaker 1: I n G, where you get an email from a
18:10
Speaker 1: spurious source and then you click a link and then
18:12
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you're you know, all virused out. Because,
18:16
Speaker 1: like you said, ben Um, there were some that, you know,
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Speaker 1: in addition to this boon to the tourist industry that
18:23
Speaker 1: would come along with the presidential visit in the first place,
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Speaker 1: they were really hoping to capitalize on the president the
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Speaker 1: optics of the President being an avid outdoorsman and fisherman
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Speaker 1: and establish u South Dakota, the Black Hills specifically as
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Speaker 1: as a real place, a real destination location for fisher fisherman.
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Speaker 1: So um, they invited him. Some select kind of dignitaries
18:44
Speaker 1: let's call them, from the city invited the President on
18:46
Speaker 1: a fishing expedition. And at first he was kind of
18:49
Speaker 1: a little bit reluctantly and they had to do a
18:51
Speaker 1: little arm twisting, but um, you know, before you knew it,
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Speaker 1: he agreed and they took him out to a place
18:57
Speaker 1: called Squaw Creek, uh Um, where he was fully suited
19:01
Speaker 1: up and like his his his waiters, I guess you know,
19:05
Speaker 1: and uh, he really had all the gear and absolutely
19:09
Speaker 1: looked the part. And um, I was hoping to have
19:12
Speaker 1: a really lucky day catching fish. Yeah, so here's the
19:16
Speaker 1: scam part of it. Good people of Black Hills, South
19:19
Speaker 1: Dakota decided that they were going to make it very,
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Speaker 1: very easy to catch these fish, specifically trout. You'll recall
19:29
Speaker 1: longtime listeners that in previous episode we mentioned a great
19:33
Speaker 1: diamond hoax wherein the hoaxters had spoiler alert literally just
19:38
Speaker 1: spread precious gems on the ground and had a kind
19:42
Speaker 1: of Easter egg hunt. This was what it was for
19:45
Speaker 1: Coolidge for sure. Although I have to say it's a
19:48
Speaker 1: lot easier to believe that the waters are just leaping
19:51
Speaker 1: with fish than to believe that the earth is rich
19:55
Speaker 1: in diamond just because there are a few sprinkled across
19:57
Speaker 1: the top soil. Right, So I let's give let's give
20:01
Speaker 1: Coolidge a little credit here for not being quite as
20:03
Speaker 1: gullible as our characters and the Diamond Hooks episode. Yeah, yeah, agreed,
20:07
Speaker 1: I mean it's oh and also shout out to the
20:10
Speaker 1: listener who wrote a fantastic email to a fantastic email
20:14
Speaker 1: to us I was reading this last night and said, actually,
20:17
Speaker 1: they are called diamond fields because you can find diamonds
20:20
Speaker 1: just laying on the ground. Loose diamonds. Diamonds, that's the
20:23
Speaker 1: millionaires currency right there. The dream, that's the dream. So
20:27
Speaker 1: billionaires even yeah, yeah, I would say even more so billionaires.
20:30
Speaker 1: You know, if you're a millionaire, you probably still use
20:33
Speaker 1: like cards or banks or something like a rube. But
20:35
Speaker 1: loose diamonds, that's where it's at. Anyway, for Calvin Coolidge,
20:39
Speaker 1: fish are where it's at. And here's what they do.
20:42
Speaker 1: Here's why it's a scamp. Some South Dakotan's who shall
20:46
Speaker 1: not be named in this episode, Uh, we're large park officials.
20:51
Speaker 1: And they went about a mile above and below the
20:57
Speaker 1: area where they knew Coolie was going to be fishing,
21:01
Speaker 1: and they installed fish nets across the creek and then
21:06
Speaker 1: in that roughly twish mile area they dumped more than
21:09
Speaker 1: two thousand trout from the state fish hatchery. These fish
21:12
Speaker 1: were old, they were huge, they were lazy because they
21:17
Speaker 1: had just been living on ground liver and horse meat,
21:19
Speaker 1: so they're fat, flabby. They had no fear of being
21:22
Speaker 1: caught because they had just they had been farmed you
21:24
Speaker 1: know been When you first said that, my interpretation was
21:28
Speaker 1: they were living on ground, as in dirt, liver and horsemeat,
21:33
Speaker 1: and that's just any insult injury right there. You know,
21:35
Speaker 1: you use the dirt to sprinkle and add a little
21:37
Speaker 1: seasoning to your liver and horse meat. You know, I
21:40
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, I am not the biggest liver fan,
21:43
Speaker 1: and I I'm not the biggest horse meat fan. I
21:46
Speaker 1: thought you said the horse meat was Okay, it was,
21:48
Speaker 1: but it's still horse meat, that's true. You can't just
21:50
Speaker 1: fool yourself into thinking, I mean, what does it really
21:52
Speaker 1: taste gamey? Well, it's kind of like saying the best
21:55
Speaker 1: snowboarding in Georgia, you know what I mean? Right? So, yeah,
22:01
Speaker 1: I like liver though, by the way, I was raised
22:02
Speaker 1: on liver and onions and stuff like that. I like it.
22:06
Speaker 1: You don't like pete. How do you feel about like
22:08
Speaker 1: that tastes good? Yeah? I think it's a it's it's
22:10
Speaker 1: all in the preparations and the sauce. Good cookery is
22:13
Speaker 1: all about the sauce. So uh, We've got to introduce
22:18
Speaker 1: the Governor of South Dakota. At this time, he was
22:21
Speaker 1: in on Norbeck's plan right from the jump, and he
22:24
Speaker 1: was also in on this this UH fishery plan, this
22:28
Speaker 1: scam to make Calvin Coolidge feel like the world's best fisherman. UH.
22:33
Speaker 1: And he and his wife, the governor's wife, were invited
22:35
Speaker 1: to the lodge for dinner one evening, and the main
22:38
Speaker 1: course was trout. And the President says, UH that he
22:42
Speaker 1: caught this trout himself in the creek. Please eat of
22:46
Speaker 1: my you know, fish winnings, these loaves and fishes, and
22:50
Speaker 1: I might feed the multitudes. And so the governor takes
22:53
Speaker 1: a bite, and then he says, from the first bite
22:56
Speaker 1: I took, I could taste liver and horse meat, which
22:59
Speaker 1: that trout had of Dalton Foggias. Coolidge did not seem
23:02
Speaker 1: to mind. He was pleased as punched to have caught
23:05
Speaker 1: his own fish. And people are pretty sure that this
23:10
Speaker 1: fishing scam his love of fishing and his like belief
23:14
Speaker 1: that he was amazing at it. Here they believed these
23:18
Speaker 1: were some of the primary reasons that his vacation in
23:22
Speaker 1: South Dakota, which was originally planned for only three weeks,
23:25
Speaker 1: ended up lasting get this three months, three months, one
23:31
Speaker 1: fourth of the year President of the United States. But
23:34
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, to be fair. He had this
23:36
Speaker 1: this huge calm center there, he was receiving his males,
23:39
Speaker 1: he was receiving all his presidential paperwork that he had
23:42
Speaker 1: to sign. I mean, it's not like he was just
23:44
Speaker 1: checked out for three months, right, Yeah. Yeah, that's working vacation.
23:50
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, which I think many of us today are
23:54
Speaker 1: all too familiar with. So there there are some things
23:59
Speaker 1: that happened. One of the biggest things is a bombshell
24:03
Speaker 1: that he drops towards the end of his vacation. It's
24:08
Speaker 1: weird because you know, sometimes you'll see this thing and
24:11
Speaker 1: maybe with your coworkers where someone seems kind of checked
24:14
Speaker 1: out of their job or something. And maybe this was
24:18
Speaker 1: a similar situation for Coolidge, because you know, we said
24:23
Speaker 1: we had like what almost three dozen newspaper reporters right
24:28
Speaker 1: that we're traveling around with him by August second, these
24:32
Speaker 1: folks were bored. They had done all, they had had
24:35
Speaker 1: the entire Rapid city experience, you know what I mean.
24:37
Speaker 1: They had the hats, they had the T shirts. If
24:41
Speaker 1: they sold those, probably not, but they had whatever that
24:43
Speaker 1: version of it was, and they're thinking, well, shouldn't I
24:47
Speaker 1: be covering other breaking news? I am a reporter After all,
24:51
Speaker 1: and that's when Coolidge invites them to his office. It's
24:54
Speaker 1: interesting because it's like, you know, on the one hand,
24:56
Speaker 1: this is absolutely like the longest, most drawn out puff
25:00
Speaker 1: piece you could possibly imagine, right where. It's like, and
25:02
Speaker 1: today the president took his respite in the calming waters
25:07
Speaker 1: of lake uh was a squaw lake or whatever, you know,
25:11
Speaker 1: and it's like, come on, there's nothing to it. There's nothing.
25:14
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess the fact that it's the president
25:16
Speaker 1: elevates it. And maybe they're reporting on some of the
25:18
Speaker 1: policy that he was in acting or some of the
25:20
Speaker 1: aspects of it that made today working vacation. But at
25:23
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's kind of like, you know,
25:25
Speaker 1: see how the other half lives, you know, that kind
25:27
Speaker 1: of thing. Who is that guy Robin Leach Lifestyles of
25:31
Speaker 1: the Rich and Famous? Just so uh so, I totally
25:35
Speaker 1: forgot that guy's accent, but you guys remember that totally. Anyhow, So,
25:40
Speaker 1: Coolidge of Viteshiman's office and they say, oh, what's up,
25:42
Speaker 1: what's up with this guy? And when they're all present,
25:46
Speaker 1: instead of speaking to them, he has slips of paper
25:51
Speaker 1: on which he has written in the same message, and
25:54
Speaker 1: he hands each of these thirty something people a slip
25:57
Speaker 1: of paper, and on it there is typed a single line,
26:01
Speaker 1: I do not choose to run for presidents in got
26:06
Speaker 1: you boom crickets immediately after casey, can we have some crickets?
26:14
Speaker 1: Perfect crickets? What a way to break the news. No
26:17
Speaker 1: one is expecting this. And then someone else, someone else
26:20
Speaker 1: says Mr President, ms the president, have you anything to
26:23
Speaker 1: out do your statement? And Calvin Coolidge says no, and
26:28
Speaker 1: then he leaves. Right, that's that. That was his press conference.
26:32
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to side with the social critics of
26:35
Speaker 1: of of the day and that this guy did seem
26:38
Speaker 1: like not a barrel of laughs, you know, now, the
26:42
Speaker 1: kind of guy you'd want to have a scotch with,
26:45
Speaker 1: or like play around a golf with. I can understand
26:47
Speaker 1: why he liked the like fishing. Do you think he
26:49
Speaker 1: liked to be alone? He was a solitary man, surely
26:54
Speaker 1: had interesting thoughts, had a very rich, vibrant internal life,
26:58
Speaker 1: you know, but outwardly he really was kind of a
27:01
Speaker 1: like a weekended Bernie's type figure, you know, just sort
27:03
Speaker 1: of propped up and pushed along. Well, this is where
27:11
Speaker 1: we run into some interesting stuff here, because it turns
27:15
Speaker 1: out that the public image was maybe not an accurate
27:18
Speaker 1: portrayal of the private man. Oh by the way, once
27:21
Speaker 1: he announced that he wasn't running again, he stayed at
27:25
Speaker 1: the game lodge. He kept fishing. He really did love
27:28
Speaker 1: it there. Huh, he really did, he appears to. Uh.
27:30
Speaker 1: And maybe you know, we will never know if he
27:34
Speaker 1: if he ever found out that they they gend up
27:37
Speaker 1: the fishery for him. But here's the thing. Although he
27:42
Speaker 1: was considered borish by society of the day and and um,
27:46
Speaker 1: people thought he was super quiet and taciturn and had
27:51
Speaker 1: no sense of humor, he was also apparently apparently kind
27:56
Speaker 1: of kind of funny, like he was a funny guy
27:58
Speaker 1: that people didn't under stand. Uh he was. He was
28:02
Speaker 1: super religious, first, we have to say, and he uh
28:05
Speaker 1: he even though he lived in the executive mansion of
28:09
Speaker 1: the White House at the time of his presidency, he
28:14
Speaker 1: didn't like all the bells and whistles. He actually enjoyed
28:18
Speaker 1: the idea of living in a place without electricity and
28:22
Speaker 1: without phones. He hated small talk. And uh, and I
28:27
Speaker 1: think you're right. We don't think that he liked people
28:32
Speaker 1: in particular. He didn't like to speak at events he
28:35
Speaker 1: had to go to. Uh someone asked him why he
28:39
Speaker 1: bothered to attend one social function because he didn't talk
28:42
Speaker 1: to anyone, and then he said, I've got to eat somewhere.
28:46
Speaker 1: And they are apparently a ton of anecdotes where this
28:49
Speaker 1: guy would call his advisors into the oval office and
28:53
Speaker 1: instead of talking to him, he would just sit there
28:55
Speaker 1: and stare at them. Wow, like Larry David style, like
28:58
Speaker 1: trying to like suck them out, psyched them out, look
29:01
Speaker 1: deep into their souls, or like maybe like cult leaders
29:05
Speaker 1: do that a lot like Bntino. What's his face? Yeah? Yeah,
29:10
Speaker 1: what's what was his He was like the the startup
29:12
Speaker 1: kind of cult leader guy, right, yeah, like a like
29:15
Speaker 1: a tech ro based I wonder what's up with them?
29:17
Speaker 1: We should do a follow up? Maybe not. I don't know.
29:21
Speaker 1: I don't want too much platform. I think you're right
29:24
Speaker 1: about that. Um. This is an interesting story though, because
29:27
Speaker 1: it's a president that I've only ever really known by
29:30
Speaker 1: the name, because it is sort of an interesting name,
29:33
Speaker 1: Calvin Coolidge. You're right. I I too. I'm a fan
29:36
Speaker 1: of a literation and the last name Coolidge just makes
29:39
Speaker 1: you think of a guy that's that's really you know,
29:41
Speaker 1: a hip cat. But he just wasn't exactly, but he
29:46
Speaker 1: didn't really care what you thought of him. He knew
29:48
Speaker 1: who he was. And uh, I really respect this notion
29:52
Speaker 1: of him taking this extended, you know, working vacation announcing
29:57
Speaker 1: that he's done with the presidency. Uh. Probably because largely
30:01
Speaker 1: he didn't like the lifestyle. He didn't like all of
30:02
Speaker 1: the things that went along with being the president, which
30:05
Speaker 1: you kind of have to be a part of. You
30:07
Speaker 1: have to do the glad handing, you have to be
30:09
Speaker 1: a good diplomat, you have to make nice with people
30:11
Speaker 1: that maybe you'd rather not. Uh. He just didn't have
30:13
Speaker 1: any time for that. And then he just stuck around
30:16
Speaker 1: in this place that from the very beginning, despite us
30:19
Speaker 1: knowing that it was sort of a ploy to get
30:21
Speaker 1: him there and that the fishing was largely a scam,
30:24
Speaker 1: he was taken by it and he very much loved
30:27
Speaker 1: it and found some solace in that. And for that
30:29
Speaker 1: I I appreciate the man. One more Coolidge anecdote is
30:33
Speaker 1: just beautiful. Uh. So he was at this social function
30:38
Speaker 1: and social obligation and the hostess, a prominent social lite, said,
30:42
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna draw him out I'm you know,
30:45
Speaker 1: I'm outgoing, and people people like me. Gosh darn ittt
30:48
Speaker 1: very Stuart Smiley of her. She corners the president at
30:51
Speaker 1: a party and she says, Mr President, you must help
30:55
Speaker 1: me out. I've made a bet that I can get
30:57
Speaker 1: you to say more than two words at this party.
31:00
Speaker 1: And his reply was you lose, at which point he left.
31:04
Speaker 1: By the way you lose, you get nothing. Yeah. So
31:09
Speaker 1: this is weird because there's also a pretty strong argument,
31:13
Speaker 1: and this comes from Atlas Obscura, that Coolidge was playing
31:20
Speaker 1: a role that he was just deep in a roll
31:22
Speaker 1: sort of the way that Andy Kaufman would get because
31:25
Speaker 1: Coolidge apparently didn't like the way he sounded when he spoke.
31:28
Speaker 1: That's a common thing, and so he wanted to seem
31:31
Speaker 1: more mysterious and he thought if he spoke less when
31:35
Speaker 1: he did speak, it would be treated with more importance,
31:38
Speaker 1: which you know is is the strategy people have used today.
31:43
Speaker 1: But that's that's it, Calvin Coolidge. I you know, I
31:47
Speaker 1: don't think a lot of us uh in no ah
31:51
Speaker 1: Ton about this president. There are a lot of presidents. Now.
31:54
Speaker 1: The thing that's ringing about now that now that we're
31:57
Speaker 1: going into this is that pretty odd pres residential pet,
32:01
Speaker 1: which is there's a really interesting backstory behind what was
32:03
Speaker 1: the was the raccoon's name again, Rebecca? Rebecca the raccoon?
32:07
Speaker 1: Moral literation, A literation abounds in this story. Rebecca was
32:11
Speaker 1: apparently the result of uh, one of those famous presidential
32:15
Speaker 1: pardonings around Thanksgiving time. But it wasn't a turkey, It
32:21
Speaker 1: was Rebecca. What does that mean? That means Rebecca was
32:25
Speaker 1: destined for the dinner table because this again was a
32:27
Speaker 1: simpler time when eating a raccoon at a presidential dinner
32:31
Speaker 1: table would have been just fine. Yeah, that's something I
32:35
Speaker 1: think my dad, the Colonel, would would probably enjoy too. Oh.
32:39
Speaker 1: Before we end, though, I guess say there's a guy
32:41
Speaker 1: that I think would be perfect for a future episode,
32:45
Speaker 1: not just because of his name, but because of his
32:47
Speaker 1: weird obsession. Is the sculptor Gutson Borglum, who is responsible
32:52
Speaker 1: not just for creating Mount Rushmore, but also for creating uh,
32:57
Speaker 1: that gigantic stone harving not too far away from us
33:02
Speaker 1: in Stone Mountain. The racist one, Yeah, the racist one
33:05
Speaker 1: from the Civil War. He wanted to push Coolidge to
33:09
Speaker 1: to help him build Mount Rushmore. But I'm personally uh,
33:15
Speaker 1: fascinated by Borgolm's story, which is a story for another day.
33:20
Speaker 1: So hats off to you, Calvin Coolidge. It sounds like
33:24
Speaker 1: you did. You did get the wool pulled over your
33:27
Speaker 1: eyes or the trout slapped over your face. Um, but
33:31
Speaker 1: you enjoyed fishing. I don't know, It's just three months vacation.
33:34
Speaker 1: Seems like a long amount of vacation for any profession.
33:39
Speaker 1: But he was checked out. He was in his mind.
33:41
Speaker 1: He was a lame duck. You know, he knew it
33:43
Speaker 1: was up, and he was setting the tone for his retirement.
33:47
Speaker 1: I get the sense that he already knew going in
33:51
Speaker 1: that he was going to uh decline the nomination and
33:54
Speaker 1: declined to run again. That's what it feels like to me.
33:57
Speaker 1: And to that end, I bet he was tired of
33:58
Speaker 1: getting uh, you know, piled on for being a dullard
34:02
Speaker 1: and all these negative things, and these social critics and
34:05
Speaker 1: probably cartoons that were making fun of him and mocking
34:08
Speaker 1: him for being a little bit straight laced and not
34:10
Speaker 1: particularly enthusiastic, and he was like, you know what, screw
34:14
Speaker 1: you guys. I'm gonna go on a taxpayer funded vacation
34:18
Speaker 1: and then just ride it out. As long as I
34:20
Speaker 1: possibly can, and then this is gonna be my new life.
34:23
Speaker 1: And with that, President Coolidge, we bid you ado. Thank
34:27
Speaker 1: you so much for tuning in. Everyone. We hope you
34:30
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode. As always, of course, thanks to our
34:34
Speaker 1: super producer, Casey not Coolidge Pegroom, and thank you to
34:39
Speaker 1: Gabe Lousier. Thank you to Christopher Hasiotis Eve's Jeff Coach. Oh,
34:45
Speaker 1: so many people to thank. I love I love that
34:47
Speaker 1: it feels a little like an award speech at the
34:49
Speaker 1: end of the episode. Gives me a sense of accomplishment.
34:51
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank my mom uh, and Casey's mom
34:54
Speaker 1: and your mom too, mainly just for giving birth to
34:58
Speaker 1: all three of us respectively. I'd also like to thank
35:01
Speaker 1: Alex Williams again for the slapping track. He has composed
35:05
Speaker 1: some great stuff lately. Uh. And of course we wanted
35:09
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You're our favorite part of the show.
35:12
Speaker 1: So if you and these are strange and hurried times,
35:15
Speaker 1: were somehow able to take a vacation for three months,
35:19
Speaker 1: where would you go? What would you do? Three months
35:21
Speaker 1: is a long time. I'm thinking, like, I don't know
35:24
Speaker 1: if I could stay one place for three months. I'm
35:26
Speaker 1: all two driven. I think I would, I would get weird.
35:29
Speaker 1: I'm thinking Borneo, you Borneo Borneo for that. I'm trying
35:35
Speaker 1: to it feels good. Hey. By the way, if you
35:39
Speaker 1: want to try us out individually as human people on
35:42
Speaker 1: the Internet, you can do so. I am at how
35:45
Speaker 1: Now Noel Brown exclusively on Instagram. I am at Ben
35:48
Speaker 1: Bulling on Instagram. Uh, and you can see my various
35:52
Speaker 1: misadventures and days of your and days to come. Uh.
35:56
Speaker 1: And I'm also at Ben Bulan hs W on Twitter
36:00
Speaker 1: and uh. The one thing we can say with certitude
36:04
Speaker 1: about our our new pal, Calvin Coolidge is that he
36:07
Speaker 1: would have been a terrible podcast guest. He probably knew
36:10
Speaker 1: how to party. We'll see you next time, folks. For
36:20
Speaker 1: more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
36:22
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your
36:25
Speaker 1: favorite shows.