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Little Girls Playing Next to West Wing

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Times sure were different. You’re never going to see something like this again, but at the time, the White House was fairly accessible. The photo below was taken in 1938 and shows two young girls playing on the bannister on the steps leading to the West Wing.

Who are these girls? What are their names? And, what happened to them?

This is a very important picture. Washington, D.C., Oct. 27. A photographer was covering the White House yesterday, snapping pictures of important men after they had conferred with President Roosevelt on his way back to the laboratory he happened to notice thse two little girls, Patricia Freeman and Frances Gross, having fun sliding on the new railing that leads up to the executive offices. Anything around the White House thats new, makes news, the editor though so too and also an very important one becuse there are very few other Capitol cities on this troubled globe where it would catch a photorgapher's eye, Imagine Berlin, or Rome. Imagine even Buckingham Palace, imagine the palaces of rulers the world around, and then try to imagine two little girls having fun sliding on a railing. SS Troopers in Berlin, Grenadiers at Buckingham--verboten-you can't do this you know, vigorous shooing away from the Plazzo Venesia in Rome. But here the little girls slide down the railing an it doesn't seem to affect the affairs and progress of government and as long as the little girls can keep on at their fun, our president and our government are safer for us than if all the SS troopers in the world stood by to make it so, 10-27-38
This is a very important picture. Washington, D.C., Oct. 27. A photographer was covering the White House yesterday, snapping pictures of important men after they had conferred with President Roosevelt on his way back to the laboratory he happened to notice thse two little girls, Patricia Freeman and Frances Gross, having fun sliding on the new railing that leads up to the executive offices. Anything around the White House thats new, makes news, the editor though so too and also an very important one becuse there are very few other Capitol cities on this troubled globe where it would catch a photorgapher’s eye, Imagine Berlin, or Rome. Imagine even Buckingham Palace, imagine the palaces of rulers the world around, and then try to imagine two little girls having fun sliding on a railing. SS Troopers in Berlin, Grenadiers at Buckingham–verboten-you can’t do this you know, vigorous shooing away from the Plazzo Venesia in Rome. But here the little girls slide down the railing an it doesn’t seem to affect the affairs and progress of government and as long as the little girls can keep on at their fun, our president and our government are safer for us than if all the SS troopers in the world stood by to make it so, 10-27-38
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Source: Library of Congress

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