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All of us were highly elated when a few mornings later Mr. Roosevelt, having gathered us around, him in the general round-table discussion, deftly made inference as to what the future might hold for us. We were then doing our work in the large Public Pool. We enjoyed little or no privacy. We needed a private patients pool and we needed equipment --- bars, tables, rings, special places for sun-bathing, means of transportation; in the winter we needed the pool enclosed with sky-lights of vitaglass admitting the sun's rays, the lockers and dressing rooms to be steam-heated and ---- we needed doctors and nurses! What glorious news! He, our noble mentor, had spoken. He, a man of large affairs --- of international repute and who has sat high in the councils of this country's administration, had noticed the movements of our lame feet in the water, and that we were ill at ease when a strange swimmer came close to us.

At this time we had advanced only so far in the general scheme of things as to have with us every three or four weeks, Dr. Johnson from Manchester, a town five miles away. Exploiting Mr. Roosevelt's idea a chart had been improvised tabulating the muscles in the affected limb and area involved. Whenever the time was propitious a "clinic" was held. Lying flat on our backs on the concrete walks circling the pool, with the sun blinding our eyes and trying to look comfortable and blase-like while Mr. Roosevelt and the doctor looked for "traces," or took time off to discuss the vagrancies of an inner quadriceps, these were the joys of a clinic. Only were faces screwed up when it was to move laterally to and fro our delicate heels over the rough concrete so that the good doctor could study our "adduction" and "abduction." But, in those pioneer days was born the new era we are now living in and enjoying; and, in those pioneer days we did well.

Those who came into our midst that first summer of '25 came from distant places, and have come back each year since then and remained longer each time. They did only one thing, and that was improve in every respect. One came with crutches and a brace, and left with a cane only. Others came in wheel chair and nearly put them aside that summer. The writer of this article came in a wheel chair accompanied by his brother, and before the summer had passed was walking with crutches and was loath to use his chair. (He had nearly "discarded" his brother). Came that first summer: Mr. Paul B. Rogers, Milwaukee, Wis.; Mr. D. C. Gerard, Chicago, Ill.; Abe Bloomberg, Dawson, Ala.; Miss. DorothyWeaver, St. Louis, Mo.; Miss. Elizabeth Retan, Boston, Mass.; Mr. Euclid Philpot, Gadsden, Ala.; Mr. G. Fred Bolts, Elizabethville, Pa.; Mr. William Schneider, Kansas City, Mo.; Mr. George Brunlik, Chicago, Ill.; Mr. Reginald Bulkley, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Thelma Steiger, Jefferson City, Mo.; Mr. Lambert Hircheimer, Falmouth Heights, Mass., and the Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt from New York City, dearest of friends and noblest of mentors, and now owner of the famous Georgia Warm Springs.

Thus ended our "first summer" of 1925.

By,
G. Fred Botts