I also take great delight in imagining what the subject's life might have been like for the years they lived in. The longer the life, the more events they passed through.
The other day, when Harry Gesner's obit reached the pages, Architect Who Made Houses Soar in California, dies at 97, we learned of a man who was alive most recently whose father, at 16, rode with Teddy Roosevelt as part of the volunteer cavalry corps known as the Rough Riders in the Spanish- American War. Think of that. Dad at some point could tell stories of being in Teddy Roosevelt's presence in Cuba in 1898. That is some handshake back in history.
I think in Joseph Mitchell's short story on McSorley's Ale House he writes of encountering veteran's of that war huddled around McSorley's pot-belly stove. There are no more veterans of that war alive these days.
When I was a lad in the '50s, I distinctly remember there being a big deal made of when the last Civil War veteran had passed away. I remember a documentary about the premiere of Gone With the Wind in 1939 in Atlanta when present were some veterans from the Confederate side who gave a loud demonstration of what was known as the "Rebel Yell," an attempt at the blood-curding cry as they charged the Union troops in the hopes of scaring them into retreat.
Of course, unless Harry Gesner left some written or recorded memorabilia behind, we don't know what Dad might have told him. Parents are well-known to not tell their offspring tales of their young lives, and we as children have probably not likely made the effort to get them to do so. A shame, but it's true.
I've always felt a certain connection to Teddy Roosevelt. My father's name was Ted, my theory named in 1915 after a man who had been president. My middle name is Theodore, and I hold a distinct memory of visiting T.R.'s home on 20th Street with my mother and father, probably sometime in the '50s. I've never gone back, but always plan to.
My own daughter Susan is a HUGE fan of Teddy Roosevelt, and lived for a while in Oyster Bay, daily going by the town's statue of T.R. on horseback. We've visited Sagamore Hill on a few occasions. I've gifted her Clay Risen's book on T.R., titled My Crowded Hour, a title I learned from a History Channel documentary was what Roosevelt called his experience of leading a charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba against Spanish troops.
My own father served in the Corps of Engineers during WW II, on Guam, making maps from reconnaissance photos. By the time he was drafted, or enlisted, (one of many details I don't know, and it's way too late to ask) he already had an engineering degree from Syracuse University. The Army became an early employer.
In a safe deposit box I have his Tech-Sergeant's patch, some Corps of Engineer collar insignia, and his discharge papers. When I went to YMCA camp in the '50s I took his dented canteen with me, and his garrison belt, items I can no longer find.
So I'm sure Mr. Gesner's and his family hold in some place similar memorabilia from the father's youthful life on horseback with Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba.
It's a great connection.
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