Lindbergh

While in Little Falls, we went to the Charles Lindbergh home. Ok, some of you may know all there is to know about him; if you do then just stop reading right here.

I, like so many people I know, pretty much knew he flew over the Atlantic solo and that his baby was kidnapped and killed. That particular kidnapping served to change our laws on kidnapping and the FBI.

However, this is about his childhood. Charles was the only son of C.A. Lindbergh and his second wife, Evangeline. Their first home burned to the ground when Charles was very young, so the home we saw was the second home built on that spot. This is the home he grew up in. However, his father never lived in this house, as the marriage fell apart altho they never divorced.

C.A. Lindbergh became congressman from MN from 1907 thru 1917. Charles and Evangeline spent their winters in Washington DC with C.A. Summers were spent in Little Falls on the farm. Charles loved being outside and working the farm. He did not like being inside, especially sitting in a classroom. In fact his 1st year in college went so poorly that he was asked not to return.

From TD, Charles always slept on this porch while his father was a congresman because they only stayed here in the summer, but when the moved back permanently he continued to sleep out here, and there was no glass or plastic (like they had any) ever put in the windows.

Charles was quite mechanically inclined and loved to tinker and build things. He built quite a complicated looking - yet simple - water heating and storage system in the house when he was about 15. Also at age 15, he drove his mother and uncle to California in a Saxon car. An expensive, luxury car of the time, but there was still no fuel pump so fuel was gravity fed to the engine, meaning that all steep uphill runs had to be done in reverse. Imagine driving across the rockies in reverse, and with no Motel 6 yet! Before he died in 1974, Charles donated all the furniture and items from the house that his mother had saved. When she moved to Detroit she had stored all these items and there they had remained. Which was a good thing, since the day that Charles landed in Paris in 1927 this house was overrun by people wanting a souvenir. People even ripped out window and door frames just to have a something of his. They tore apart the Saxon, pretty much leaving the frame and body. The one on display was built from parts scavenged off the original and others picked up when they could be found.

Anyway, Charles came back to the house before his death and supervised the placing of all the furniture so that the house was recreated at it had been in his youth. He also shared many experiences. One interesting tidbit concerns the marks in the wooden flooring next to the back door. Seems when Charles gathered firewood, his mother let him chop the kindling right there inside the door. The marks are actually where the ax missed the wood. From TD again, I didn't get pictures of this, but I do have a sorry shot of the incubators he kept in the dining room, and one of them over heated and almost burned the house down a second time.

Well, I know this is a little long, but I found all of it pretty fascinating and the tour was excellent. Oh, the Saxon car is restored and sitting in the basement. TM could hardly take his eyes off of it.

God Bless