Welcome to Weird White House, a new series on the wacky facts that I find and/or remember off the top of my head about the US presidents. I say "weird" with all the love in my history nerd heart.
We start the series (and year) off with:
Nicknamed "Silent Cal" because he apparently wasn't super talkative (and it totally wasn't his secret gangster name), Coolidge:
-had a pet raccoon named Rebecca which was sent to him from someone who thought he should make it his Thanksgiving dinner and his family was like NAH THIS IS PET MATERIAL
-he loved being photographed wearing Native American headresses (he was adopted into the Sioux tribe), so here's what that looked like:
AND HE WAS PHOTOGRAPHED IN THESE THINGS
I would 1000% vote for an candidate who swaggered around with their name on their giant cowboy chaps.
-After President Harding's sudden death, Coolidge was woken up in the middle of the night, sworn in by lantern light by his dad (who was a notary), and then he went back to bed. Priorities.
-speaking of which, Coolidge slept 12 HOURS A DAY PLUS NAPS. Role model for us all.
-he had a mechanical horse in the White House that he used for exercise. Its nickname was "Thunderbolt".
Tragically, it didn't look like the ones that used to be outside Walmart:
You're welcome for that whole mental image of a stern-faced Coolidge rocking off into the sunset on a mechanical box.
-despite his stern demeanor, Coolidge had a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor which a lot of people didn't get, which brings us to
MY FAVORITE FACT ABOUT CALVIN
-Coolidge liked to press buttons in the Oval Office and hide under the desk while the Secret Service ran around looking for him
I KID YOU NOT THIS MAN WAS A P R A N K S T E R
Additional photos of interest that exist:
1.) Coolidge staring at a cow:
(someone please caption that)
2.) COOLIDGE'S KITTIES BLACKIE AND TIGER:
3.) Coolidge exercising with the Speaker of the House, as one does:
So if Coolidge isn't one of your top favorite presidents by now, go sleep for 12 hours and try again.
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