BS: White House Plumbing

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 06:01 PM

If you really need to know about the plumbing I know A. Mc Quaid, a member of the steam fitters union, who got security clearence to work the White House.

When it came time for the new HLS buildings he took his name off the list since the security scrutinization was a hassle and a drag.

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 05:35 PM

Warren Harding low in IQ?
Take a look at his record.

Yes, He was elected by 60% of the voters, a bad augury, since popularity generally equates with mediocrity.
Yes, he worked for disarmament, an impossible goal with humankind.
Yes, in the Senate and in campaigning he was excellent in appearance and speech- hmmm, a parallel to the current situation?
Yes, he supported women's suffrage, ratified the 19th Amendment, and we all know where that led!
Yes, he helped establish the Bureau of Veterans Affairs; weren't veterans better left to sell apples and bad neckties on the street?
Yes, he worked to promote agriculture and industry and the merchant marine, and we all know business is bad for the common man (might have to take employment).
Yes, he called for a department of public welfare, and some of the programs later put into effect under that horrid F. D. R.

He died after only two years in office.

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 09:08 AM

We only had a shower, so my mother bought a galvanized horse trough to use as a bathtub for us kids. Yes, she heated the water on the stove just as she did for the dishes. But we had an indoor toilet!

(We had a water heater, but I don't know why it either didn't work or Mom didn't use it.)

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 08:58 AM

According to the article above, President Andrew Jackson had a tub that was plumbed-in, while the rest of the household made do with metal tubs that were filled from kettles of hot water.

When I was growing up on the family farm in Maine in the 1940's, we still did our baths in a tub in the kitchen. There was also a hand-powered butter churn that we had to wait our turn to churn! And there were oil lamps that the adults would carry from room to room in the evening; I'm not sure why they wouldn't let a three-year old carry one. The "bathroom" was an outhouse some 50 yards from the kitchen back door, a three-holer, but with nice murals including a sailor with a concertina and a dancing yellar girl.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: oldhippie
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 05:43 PM

A cute song - remember "I Was Nixon's Plumber" Spencer Ross

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 05:43 PM

Depends on your interpretation of bath tub. Was it a free standing bath that was filled with kettles of water heated on the fire or was it a plumbed-in bath tub with taps and waste pipe?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 05:16 PM

Nixon had quite a team of plumbers, I seem to recall. They did earn him a place in history, unlike Harding or Fillmore. But what Nixon really needed was a "plumber's helper."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: kendall
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 03:46 PM

Considering that Harding had the IQ of a soil sample, I doubt he ever said anything that profound.

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 03:37 PM

Plumbing's fine, Bert -- it's just backed up. Call Roto-Rooter.

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Bert
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 03:08 PM

I am sure that the plumbing is now in serious need of restoration, seeing as the White House has been so full of shit these past years.

Subject: RE: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 02:57 PM

The only thing to fear is fear itself

original quote by Warren G Harding.

However FDR got more mileage fron this statement than Warren.



Read HAIL TO THE CHIEFS by Barbara Holland

things your teacher never told you - an undignified guide to our Presidents From GW to RR

Subject: BS: White House Plumbing
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 02:48 PM

I've been avidly watching the candidates celebrate their primary victories, flushed with success, which raised the question, naturally enough, of which President was first to install modern plumbing in the White House.

One can find several candidates on the web. Millard Fillmore surfaces as the one who had the first bathtub installed in 1851 but that story appears to be a fable. Jackson evidently had a working bathtub before Millard. The best overview I've found comes from the plumbers themselves: Click here for article

I found the article absolutely fasinating, but it may not pull your chain.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble