Coconut Balls & Harry S. Truman NHS (Day 5)

Without a doubt, there have been times in the kitchen when I would’ve absolutely loved to throw my hands up, heave the dish towel on the floor, and walk out for good. But then the reality of having to go back in to clean up any messes smacks me in between the eyes. Being the head bottle washer and line cook has it’s perks right? (I’ll keep telling myself this.). In any case, we’re on to Day 5 of what could easily become cookie and blogging chaos!

Oh wait! That was this weekend! After baking myself into a blind stupor with five types of goodies (and a rebake) I’m taking a slight breather! For now. It’s a cycle our kitchen and I gladly go through every year. This year is different since I’m also blogging about national sites to go with each cookie concoction. Son A just asked, “how many hours can I spend going down rabbit holes about a cabin?” A lot.

But, let’s be honest, the majority of my sons’ teachers over the years selflessly worked extra hours to make sure kids like mine (and many others) received a solid education. It’s just what a.ma.zing educators do! My baking cookies (and writing about a few lesser known places) for a few hours is nothing compared to what teachers do on a regular basis. Let’s head on over to another hard-working individual’s home for our Day 5 destination…the Harry S. Truman National Historic Site in Independence, Missouri.

Our 33rd U.S. President, born in 1884, was a proud Missouri man who worked a wide variety of jobs throughout his life. After high school at the age of 17, Harry S. Truman became a bank clerk, but left the position to help his father John on the family’s 600-acre Grandview farm. In 1917, the United States joined the fight in World War I. Harry, age 33, was too old for the draft. But he enlisted anyway and eventually was promoted to Captain of Battery D 129th Field Artillery in France. Truman was the only U.S. President who saw combat in WWI. It was on these foreign battlefields, Truman found he had a knack for leadership, and developed lifelong connections.

After the war, Truman briefly returned to the family farm. Farming proved too limiting for Harry’s ambitions. He partnered up with his old Army buddy, Edward “Eddie” Jacobson, and became haberdashers in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Their gent’s accessory shop, Truman & Jacobson, opened its doors on November 28, 1919 at 104 West 12th Street. Gentlemen of the day purchased suits here, discussed law, and shared old war stories. The store was initially successful, but the 1921 recession caused its doors to close for good in September 1922. This left both men in serious debt, and Truman with a lifelong appreciation for tailored suits. If you’re really curious, Gentleman’s Gazette covers Truman’s outfits in great detail here.

After his failed business venture, Harry suited up to become a Jackson County judge in 1922 and U.S. senator in 1934. In April 1945, Truman quickly became a War President after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s untimely death. Truman had only been Vice-President for 82 days. World War II in Europe officially ended the next month on May 8th, but the war in the Pacific was still raging. The United States encouraged Japan to surrender. The Japanese Empire promptly declined this offer. On July 30th, Truman authorized in a handwritten note to Secretary of War Henry Stimson to “release when ready.” Truman never specifically ordered the two atomic bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (August 6th and 9th, respectively), but their use was implied. Victory in Japan was celebrated on August 14th and WWII ended. As a former private and now Commander-in-Chief, President Truman probably analyzed all of the angles.

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Truman continued to serve as president until 1953. He then retired to his beloved “center of the world,” where he died in December 1972. President Truman is the only Post-WWII president who was never a millionaire during his lifetime. In fact, the Trumans lost large sums of money through zinc and oil investments and his failed clothing store. But his lifelong experiences have given us some straightforward, though-provoking quotes, such as..

• Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers.
• I always tell students that it is what you learn after you know it all that counts.
• Whether discrimination is based on race, or creed, or color, or land of origin, it is utterly contrary to American ideals of democracy.

Many others are recorded at the Truman Library Institute. But my absolute, and obvious, favorite Truman quote is:

“If you can’t stand the heat,

get out of the kitchen.”

Harry S. Truman

The gist of Truman’s kitchen saying is pretty straightforward. If you find yourself in a situation where you can’t handle the stress, then get out of it. We all credit President Truman for saying it during his political career. An article from July 23, 1942 in the Caribou County Sun from Soda Springs, Idaho first quoted the President with this quip (see below). (The last line in this article is also quite amusing.)

But Truman attributes his heated kitchen quote to his best friend, Judge Eugene I. “Buck” Purcell. He’s second from the left in the 1931 Jackson County, Missouri court swearing in ceremony. Truman is wearing glasses.

At the Harry S. Truman house on 219 North Delaware Street, visitors can walk through Harry and Bess Truman’s kitchen. I wonder if he said the kitchen quote here? Or if Truman ever left it because it was too hot? I digress…the first couple used this kitchen from their 1919 marriage until her death in 1982. (Bess Truman’s family, the Wallaces, owned the property since 1885.) During Truman’s 1945 to 1953 presidency, this house served as the “Summer White House.”

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Bess Truman was an extremely private public figure, who found being in the public eye difficult. If you were a guest in her home, the chances of you seeing her kitchen would’ve been nil. Mere acquaintances would never have seen the 2nd floor, and more intimate areas of her home beyond the living, parlor-music, and dining rooms. You can only imagine her surprise and horror when she once found presidential sightseers gawking inside of it! The current fence around the house was installed in 1949 by the Secret Service.

When Mrs. Truman died in 1982 at the age of 97, her will stipulated a continued privacy: “During the life of my daughter, the area above the first floor of my residence shall not be available to the public.”  Their only daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, never stayed in the home between 1982 and her death in 2008. The 2nd floor of the Truman home remains closed to the public to this day. Not because of the privacy clause, but due to the flooring and staircases being too unsound to withstand visitor traffic.

Fortunately, Jack E. Boucher took photos of the entire home as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). You can also virtually tour the home here.

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From outward appearances, the Truman house is fastidious and tidy beyond belief. Bess Truman was clearly proud of her home, and rightfully so! But Jack E. Boucher took other photos the general public probably wasn’t intended to see…

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It’s photos like these latter ones that make my cleaning-by-hiding technique legit. If you come to our house, and you’re caught snooping through cabinets and furniture, we’ll know what you’re up to!

The Coconut Ball recipe featured today is a combination of at least three different coconut ball recipes attributed to Mrs. Truman on the WWW. Her original handwritten recipe is vastly different however. It contains flour, baking powder and is rolled out before baking. These wanna-be WWW recipes, including mine, leave these ingredients out. Trying to replicate historical recipes is tricky at best. Ingredients change, techniques evolve, and recipes tweak. As is the case of these fraudulent coconut balls. (More authentic Bess Truman recipes are handwritten in her hand here.)

My first attempt at today’s recipe resulted in coconut blobs…tasty but so sad looking! With an addition of cornstarch and redo on technique, the final product is much more pleasing to the eye! And they still taste good!

In this recipe, I used condensed coconut milk in lieu of sweetened condensed milk. We are eating coconut balls after all, so why not. If you can’t find sweetened condensed coconut milk, just use equal amounts of sweetened condensed milk. The “dough” will spread slightly at the end of baking. But can be quickly pushed back onto a pile immediately after coming out of the oven. Not bad for a faux presidential cookie ball!

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The half-way mark of the Twelve Days of Christmas cookies will find us visiting The Mount Rushmore State again. This time we’ll be checking out the bovidae family! As Son A likes to say…Tootles!

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