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Clifton Truman Daniel remembers growing up with his grandpa, Harry S. Truman, then ex-president. This is just one of the stories he tells:

Grandpa was the last truly accessible ex-President. When he retired, the Secret Service protection vanished. It was not extended to ex-Presidents until after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. There is a five-foot steel fence around the house, put up by the Service in 1947, but from 1953 to 1964 it wasn’t locked. Anyone who wanted to could walk up and knock on the door.

My favorite story is about the man whose car blew a tire on Delaware Street, right in front of the house. Not knowing where he was or whose house he was approaching, the man walked through the unlocked gate and up to the front door where he rang the bell. Grandpa answered in his shirtsleeves.

“Can I use your phone, please?” the man said. “I have a flat.”

“Sure,” Grandpa said. “Come on in.”

The man called a local mechanic, who said it would take 20 minutes or so to get to him.

“I’ll wait outside,” he told Grandpa.

“Nonsense,” Grandpa said. “Have a seat. Relax.”

As far as we know, they spent the next 20 minutes chatting amiably in the living room. When the tow truck arrived, the man stood, shook Grandpa’s hand, and thanked him for his hospitality.

“Not at all,” Grandpa said, showing the man out. “It was nice talking to you.”

The man got halfway down the front steps before he stopped and turned.

“I hope you won’t take offense,” he said. “But you look a lot like that son of a bitch Harry Truman.”

“No offense at all,” Grandpa said with [a] wide grin. “I am that son of a bitch.”

(Via Tom McMahon.)

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