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Had Truman and Chandler talked politics? "Whattayou suppose?" snorted Truman. "Did you ever see two politicians get together without talking politics?" By way of parting small talk, Happy mentioned Truman's relatives in Shelby County, Kentucky. Replied Truman: "My daughter stopped by once to make sure my grandparents were really married." He grinned and added: "And they were."
Grass Roots. At home in Independence, Harry Truman rests up from his political exercises. The iron fence around the big white house with the gingerbread eaveswork was originally put up by Secret Service men as a security measure; it has been kept to hold out the tourists who flock around the house all day, every day. Mostly, the Trumans stay out of sight, but sometimes of an evening Harry can be seen in the backyard in an aluminum lawn chair. Bess Truman (who has a political mind of her own and is an enthusiastic admirer of Stuart Symington—toward whom Harry is cool) likes to putter around in her small garden. The day she came home from Europe she was out watering the lawn.
Encouraging her husband to work on the lawn (and, incidentally, trim off his extra poundage), Bess bought a new power mower. Every time she asked him to use it, Harry would grunt his agreement, do nothing. Bess kept nagging. One Sunday morning she was putting the breakfast dishes away, when she heard the whir of the mower. Harry Truman was mowing the grass—and waving happily at church-going friends.
Good Episcopalian Bess Truman was horrified, called out to Harry to stop—but he seemed not to hear. Recalls Bess: "I had to walk before the Baptists and the Methodists and tell him to stop cutting the grass on Sunday morning. He grinned at me, shut off the mower, put it in the garage—and he has not cut a blade of grass since that Sunday morning."
Even without the benefits of lawn-mowing exercise, Harry Truman seems in good health, although one of his favorite dishes, chili con carne, has been banned by Dr. Wallace Graham, former White House physician, now a Kansas City surgeon. Bess "almost froze to death" in unheated springtime Europe, now has a touch of arthritis.
Bathroom Phone. Last week Harry Truman walked from his office to the barbershop of Frank Spina, who served as guidon for Captain Harry of Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, in World War I. Truman was especially careful about his haircut; he had an appointment in Chicago next week, and he wanted to look his best.
In Chicago Democrats were already coming to life in anticipation of Truman's arrival: a heated dispute was under way over whether he should be met at the station by a white or a black limousine (available for convention use are 150 Fords, 60 Mercurys and, for the VIPiest VIPs, 15 Lincolns). The consensus, as expressed by a member of the host committee : "Mr. Truman is not Marilyn Monroe. I think he should be met in black."