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Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

FDR and family greeting the torchlight parade at Hyde Park on election night 1940

From Robert Sherwood:
On Sunday evening, the President and [Harry] Hopkins were to go by train to Hyde Park and [ ] Rosenman and I were flying back to New York. Before we left, we offered somewhat self-conscious best wishes. "It has been grand fun hasn't it!" said Roosevelt, with more warmth and accuracy. "And don't forget - the Missus is expecting you and Dorothy and Madeline for supper Tuesday evening." As if anyone could forget an invitation to Hyde Park to listen to the returns on election night! (Dorothy was Mrs. Rosenman and Madeline my own wife, whom the President had met once but was, of course, known to him immediately by her first name.)

…On election night, after a stand-up supper at Mrs. Roosevelt's cottage, we drove through the Hyde Park woods, beloved by Franklin Roosevelt, to the big house to listen to the election returns. In a little room to the left off the front hall sat the President's mother with several old lady friends. They were sewing or knitting and chatting. A radio was on, softly, but they seemed to be paying little attention to it. In the big living room there was another radio going and a large gathering of weirdly assorted guests. The president was in the dining room in his shirtsleeves, with his sons and his Uncle Fred Delano and members of his staff. Large charts were littered on the dining table and news tickers were clattering in the pantry. The Roosevelt boys were excited, but not their father. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt moved about from one room to another, seeing to the wants of the guests, apparently never pausing to listen to the returns. If you asked her how she thought she was things were going she would reply, impersonally, "I heard the Willkie was doing quite well in Michigan," in exactly the tone of one saying, "The gardener tells me the marigolds are apt to be a bit late this year."

… After ten o'clock, the sweep of Roosevelt's victory was so complete that there was no point in trying to keep the exact score. Later, the President and all the guests went out on the front porch to greet a parade of Hyde Park townspeople, one of whom carried a hastily improvised placard bearing the legend, "SAFE ON 3rd." Roosevelt was particularly elated because he carried his own home district, normally solidly Republican, by a vote of 376 to 302. That was the best he ever did on Election Day in Hyde Park.