Born in 1928, my early years were through the Great Depression. Those were truly hard times. No food stamps, Medicaid or Medicare, and minimal welfare. My dad was too proud to accept welfare as were many men of that era. We got by, just barely. We thought everyone else was suffering like we were. That perception made it easier to take.

My folks tried to shelter my brothers and me from the problems they were facing. I would hear them talking in bed when I was supposed to be asleep. I knew how hard it was to put food on the table and pay the rent. We needed an encouraging word or two.

Our president through those lean years was Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). He came from wealth and social position, but understood our plight. He could talk our talk. I remember when President George H. W. Bush didn't know how to buy a carton of milk at the grocery store. He wasn't a bad person, he just never had to pick up milk on the way home from work like my dad did. He didn't talk our talk. Times were not as hard and a welfare net was in place.

I remember when we had a store-bought radio, not just the homemade kit Dad had sent away for a few years earlier. All my family, well, Dad, Mom and me, sat around the radio in the living room and listened to President Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. His homey chatter gave us hope. Using simple, positive language with understandable examples, we easily related to him. I was only eight or nine, but he spoke directly to me. I hung on every word. He began his talk with “My Friends” and ended with the Star Spangled Banner being played. He was talking to America. He was talking to me.

No president since has commanded my respect and attention as did FDR. Maybe because I was a child. Maybe because times were hard and we needed assurance. Yes, and maybe because I really felt he was talking directly to me. Whatever, he had my attention. Oh, I later learned in college that he had another side to him, but he encouraged me when I needed a kind word.

I am not knocking George Washington or Abe Lincoln. They were great in difficult times. It's just, well, personal with me. I listened to President Roosevelt talk directly to me. Washington and Lincoln could only be found in the history books. I will celebrate President's Day with the rest of you. Eat cherry pie and think about the lilacs in bloom along the railway tracks carrying Lincoln's body back to Illinois, but my heart will be with FDR's Fireside Chats of yesteryear. I can hear him now: “My friends . . . “