On FDR overload

Our adventure to Warm Springs has been wonderful.  The people we have met truly do embody what people here call “the spirit of Warm Springs”.   My story (Mrs. Hindman) began Friday night after we all got in bed finally around 11 pm.  Joanna, my youngest, age 4, woke up vomiting in our bed (gross, I know).  We called the front desk here at the Best Western to let them know that we needed a change of bed linens.  When the two young ladies came to our room, not only did they have the new linens and pillows, but they also brought crackers, a Sprite, and some peppermints for Joanna.  They offered to go next door to the nursing home to get us baby aspirin, if we needed them.  They were so gracious and hospitable to us, even at 2:30 in the morning!

Joanna slept without any more incidents and she and my mom stayed home this morning while we toured Roosevelt Institute for Rehabilitation.  She has been fine the rest of the day…no more vomit… Hallelujah!

In the meantime, all of us met for breakfast in the hotel lobby at 8 am, and we left at 8:30 to meet Linda Creekbaum at the Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation.  We arrived a little early, (since the Institute is only about a mile from the hotel), but our early arrival gave us some time to get a group shot in front of the center.  We met Linda in the parking lot.  She led us inside the Georgia Hall, where polio patients at the center would congregate for fun and fellowship while at Warm Springs.  Georgia Hall now houses the dining hall and offices.  The Institute’s librarian, Michael Shadix, came over to meet us on his day off.  He was just as interested in our writing prompt and work with our students as we were in hearing about the history of Warm Springs Institute.  He gave us a DVD filled with about 30 minutes of silent reel footage of actual therapies and assistive devices that were used at Warm Springs in the 1930′s.  We were so grateful to him for taking his time to meet with us on his day off.  He also gave Mr. Seldomridge a book about Warm Springs (the name escapes me now), but I cannot wait to get my hands on it. 

After the films, Michael had to leave, so we said our goodbyes and then Linda took us on our tour of the grounds.  We began by walking outside at the Meriweather Inn site.  The old Inn began as a resort in the late 19th century.  It had several floors and burned twice, and was rebuilt over the years.  It does not stand on the campus today.  FDR was deathly afraid of fire and would not stay in the Inn at Warm Springs.  He stayed in some of the cottages across from Georgia Hall in the early days of his visits here. 

We continued down the walkway outside to the area called the quad.  When FDR designed the Institute, it was very important to him that it did not feel like a hospital.  The campus was designed to look like a college campus, and was fashioned much like the University of Virginia.  There are columns on many of the buildings.  In the area called the quad, there are two main buildings (Georgia Hall and another one) that face one another and then running down either side of the rectangular patch of grass, the other buildings form the surrounding perimeters of the rectangle.  To the left of Georgia Hall, is Kress Hall.  This is one of the dormitories and the place where Ann Fay stays in Comfort. 

We continued our tour through Kress Hall and out around back, where we learned about Bush 13 from Linda.  Bush 13 is where polio patients would meet and hold hands while at Warm Springs.  This particular bush was large enough to conceal two wheelchairs.  [Side note...Linda was extremely wonderful at adding the human interest to the history portion of the Warm Springs story.  I wish my history teachers would have done this for me in school.  I would have really enjoyed it so much more...]

There is so much more to post about today, but bed is calling my name right now.  I will post the rest of the adventure tomorrow.  And to think, this post was only about the first hour of Saturday.

view from kress

walking test equip

boyd and flat suddreth

Boyd by the quad

campus pool

curb manuevers

front door of rehab center

front of ws rehab cntr

indoor rehab pool

Kress Hall

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