Rebecca the Raccoon

In this podcast episode, Cydni and Sher discuss the unusual friendship between President and Mrs. Coolidge and Rebecca the raccoon. Originally sent to the White House to be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner, Rebecca was instead adopted as a beloved pet. Her story illustrates the importance of joy, playfulness, and laughter even in high-stress environments. This episode is "Rebecca the Raccoon" and we are so glad you are here! 

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This week, we challenge you to be more lighthearted and find joy even in difficult moments. 

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Show Notes

Drip-Drip Drop, Words and  Music by  Matt Hoiland
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Transcript

Episode 120 - Rebecca the Raccoon

[00:00:00] 

Cydni: Okay, Sher, here is a recipe for you in case you needed some dinner. First you have to skin this animal and you have to remove its scent glands, trim the fat and cut the meat, and you have to boil the meat as well. And then after you season this animal, you could put it in the crockpot, add some vegetables. But you should be aware that this animal can be carriers of disease like rabies and roundworms. Which animal do you think I'm talking about?

Sher: Why are we talking about this? That's the question. 

Cydni: Recipes. People love recipes. 

Sher: Not that one. What is it? I'm not skin in anything. I think you're setting me up here. Yeah. I wanna say raccoon, but 

Cydni: raccoon, when you introduced me to this topic today, I thought, there's no way people really do eat raccoon. Right? I know they eat alligator, but raccoon, but people go raccoon hunting. So I thought maybe they do. So I Googled it I put raccoon and it said, crockpot recipe first.

I heard it tastes like chicken. Of course you did. [00:01:00] Welcome to the Cydni and Sher podcast and recipe show. It would be like. Two pieces of bread, put the peanut butter on the left side, put the jam on the other side and put 'em together. . I'd totally mix it up for my kids. . Because I'm like that. I sometimes do a cookie cutter in the middle. And then they don't eat it because they only eat Chick-fil-A 

Sher: so as Cydni has clued us into, we are going to talk about a raccoon today. 

Cydni: I think it's foreshadowing.

Sher: Yes. That's it. I foreshadowed. All right, we're actually gonna start with talking about President Calvin Coolidge. And he has the nickname of Silent Cal, 

Cydni: which I thought was odd since that's what a lot of people call me. Silent. Sid a lot of people are like, I wish you would say more. I wish you would speak your mind freely and not be so silent and pondering all the time, but I just am who I am.

Sher: So Silent Cal. The reason he has this nickname is because he was like Cydni, very [00:02:00] reserved and very quiet., And a leader and the president of the United States, 

Cydni: same sea, 

Sher: and Silent Cal was sent a raccoon in 1926 by somebody that supported him that was from Mississippi, and he suggested that President Coolidge put this on his Thanksgiving menu. But he just couldn't eat it. He couldn't do it. So instead of eating it, Coolidge decided to adopt her and he named the raccoon Rebecca. So President Coolidge and his wife Grace and the raccoon became absolutely great friends. 

Cydni: I just feel like nobody does these acts of service for our presidents anymore. what if people started sending animals to the president? Maybe things would go better. The White House would be a good place to have a home. Lots of space, right? Rebecca did well. Right, but I didn't know how many other animals were sent to them. People sent animals all the time to them. This was not a one time occasion. The difference was this one was sent to eat for [00:03:00] Thanksgiving, which I did put myself in this man's shoe that sent it.

He had a raccoon and he thought, you know what, I'm gonna send this to the president, like the effort of mailing it. He mailed him a raccoon, a raccoon, a live raccoon for Thanksgiving, So weird. I just wish we knew more about this man how he got to where he got. But let me tell you about some other animals that were sent there. Not for consumption. There was a hippo. 

Sher: He was sent a hippo. 

Cydni: He was sent a hippo in 1927 and he was immediately given to the zoo. He didn't keep the hippo? No, most of them, they were given a nice home in the zoo. He was sent lion cubs. 

Sher: In America, how did people have a hippo and lion cubs?

Cydni: don't know. I have no idea how any of this happened, but I wanted to tell you the names of the Lion Cubs. The names were tax Reduction and Budget Bureau. Also, there was a bobcat named Smokey Bob, a donkey named Ebenezer, a Wallaby, a black bear, Enoch, the [00:04:00] Goose and Canaries and Dogs. Which the dogs I liked to their names. Rob Roy, prudence Prime, Peter Pan, and Tiny Tim. The canaries were nip and tuck, which I thought was really good. That's pretty funny. That is, huh? So I thought it was pretty awesome that none of these animals were eaten for Thanksgiving. That. We're aware of nip and tuck. A small little feast. I felt like this information is important because didn't have just one exotic animal. So this just proves how important and special Rebecca is they had an option of bobcats and a hippo and they stayed with Rebecca. So I just wanted to make sure everyone understood, the pedestal she's on.

Sher: That's a good point. And also Google it because there's some great pictures of president. Coolidge and his wife with Rebecca, the raccoon that are just really cute 

Cydni: I do believe that Silent Cal probably wouldn't have been so silent without grace. I feel like she kinda ran the place, is what I'm kinda catching from this, maybe she decided for him [00:05:00] to be more silent and also decided for him to keep the raccoon, which a First Lady should do. Absolutely. 

Sher: All right, so Rebecca, the raccoon lived like royalty. President Coolidge gave her a collar that was inscribed White House raccoon and she was allowed to roam the halls of the White House. I cannot imagine a raccoon roaming the halls of the White House. I can't imagine that in my own house. I do not want a raccoon in my house, and they let it roam the White House.

It's so American. I love it. It's beautiful right? It's their house. They can do what they want, I guess. All right. She attended the Easter egg role. I think that's where one of the photos were , is her going to the Easter egg role, I think. Did you see that? 

Cydni: Yeah. The photos are fantastic. I loved them. It's like a woman of fashion and popularity with her little poodle Uhhuh, but it's a raccoon. Rebecca with her own jewelry. 

Sher: All right. She had her own tree house and they taught her to walk on a leash and it was said that President Coolidge and Rebecca. Would take long evening walks together with the raccoon waddling [00:06:00] along the end of a leash. It got so that the president never left a day go by without a brief visit with Rebecca.

Cydni: Some even say Rebecca was the muse. I just said that. No one else has said that. 

Sher: That's amusing. so first Lady,

Cydni: Cher, we have to stop. I have to get something off of my heart. Before we continue, this is very personal but I have to tell you what happened in our home.

Once upon a time, our family went to a reptile show, and while we were there, there was an impulse purchase, one that was not planned or desired by some of us, but we left that day with a snake, 

Sher: eh?

Cydni: When we got home, it came to our awareness, we would have to feed the snake, and that is when I went and purchased the first ever live mouse. When we got home, I prepared the mouse for dinner.

but the snake would not eat. My children exclaimed. Our snake is a vegetarian, and we were all very relieved because I couldn't bear this tiny, cute little mouse to be eaten Immediately we were Googling what to feed a mouse and a mouse's favorite food. [00:07:00] It's strawberries and peanut butter. The snake never ate that mouse. Just like the raccoon could not be eaten for thanksgiving. The mouse could not be eaten that night either by the snake. And to be honest, we were very relieved 'cause we just couldn't handle that. It was winter, so I couldn't just let it loose in our neighbor's yard. We had to come up with another option . So I did call where we purchased the live mouse and asked to return it, and the guy said, no, you can't return a live mouse. And then simply with faith and belief, and I cried, he took it back. 

Sher: You convinced him to take the mouse back? 

Cydni: He took the mouse back. Really? I took, yeah, because you cried. Yeah. I like begged, there was some emotion and drama. I pulled up every ounce of drama class I'd ever taken. And I was like, listen to me. I need you to take this mouse back. It is winter. I cannot let him loose. Our snake will not eat it. He's a vegetarian. He's not a vegetarian, but we figured it out. It's frozen. Mice are better. Oh..

Sher: Do you still have a snake? We still have a snake. You do? Mm-hmm. I'm glad I've never [00:08:00] seen it. really? Yeah. I think if I saw it, I would wanna shoot it. 

Cydni: I don't wanna be like, I wish he would, but I also wanna get rid of that too. We do still have the snake and Titus did call me while we were in Paris and told me it escaped. So I prayed and I was like, please help him find it. Dead, but he found it alive. Oh. So we still have a snake, I can't believe. But that mouse I'm sure lives on somewhere and has a beautiful life. I'm sure he was not resold to another snake owner. He has a happy life and a family I'm sure. 

Sher: All right., Back to Rebecca and no more snakes and mice for now. So first Lady, grace Coolidge, doted on Rebecca and sometimes even let her sit on her lap during meetings, grace Coolidge wrote.

She enjoyed nothing better than being placed in a bathtub with a little water in it, and given a cake of soap with which to play in this fashion. She would amuse herself for an hour or more. so funny. It's amazing. She was just letting her hang out in the bathtub with a cake of soap.[00:09:00] 

I love it. No one, no raccoon ever lived a better life. No, I don't think so. And then Rebecca did get into a lot of trouble though. Grace Coolidge called her a real scam. I love that. I think that needs to come back just like women calling other women real scams. Yeah, I guess they already do that.

Anyway, so and further, she said she was a mischievous, inquisitive party and we had to keep watch of her when she was in the house. You think it's a wild raccoon? You probably should keep watching her, 

Cydni: but she was different. She wasn't like the other raccoons.

Sher: did I ever tell you that I had a raccoon in my backyard a few years ago? My dog had to go outside, not Rudy. Different dog. Dog outside barking crazily. So then of course I walked out with my flip flops and my pajamas. And there was a raccoon and my dog was barking at it. I'm like, that raccoon is going to eat my dog. And I couldn't get my dog to move, so I. Grabbed a taser, which then I told my students about this and they looked it up and tasers don't work on raccoons, [00:10:00] so what?

They don't, that's what they said. I looked it up later. They were right. Just makes 'em mad. Who found that out? Somebody who tased a raccoon and got their face ripped off. Anyway, I finally dragged him back into the house and I don't know what happened to the raccoon. 

Cydni: Well, it may have moved over to our house because we had a mother raccoon and two little babies for a long time.

we finally figured out where they were living, but we just let them move in and gave them baths and put a collar on raccoons and a mouse and a snake. 

Sher: Anyway, Going back to Rebecca, the real scam. She unscrewed light bulbs, unrolled toilet paper, and once stole a string of pearls. I'm pretty Sure that Grace Coolidge probably didn't clean up the mess. I bet the people working at the White House were like, you've got to be kidding me. I'm cleaning up a roll of toilet paper right now 

Cydni: because of a raccoon. 

Sher: Yes. That's fantastic. In the Evening Star which was a Washington DC. Newspaper. A reporter wrote this story. The title is Rebecca President's Pet Raccoon Goes Democratic scorned, GOP [00:11:00] Relief, and he explains that the president, his wife, and other. Republican leaders went on a fishing trip, in South Dakota, and they took Rebecca with them to South Dakota to go fishing. This is how much they love Rebecca, the raccoon people don't 

Cydni: even love their kids this much. We went to Paris without our children. They took the raccoon. 

Sher: He further explained that Rebecca had to stay in the stable, but somebody left the door open. I bet it was somebody who had to clean up the toilet paper the time.

I bet. So. Good call. Mm-hmm. 

Cydni: And I just like to say I really love my kids and I miss them the whole time. It was in Paris. Just in case they listen. 

Sher: You talked big. She did. 

Cydni: I miss them so much? Yeah. 

Sher: so the reporter said that Rebecca escaped and Rebecca had gone, democratic search parties were organized, and he further wrote Rebecca, who is nowhere near as wild as she thinks she is, was spotted in the top of a tall jack pine, which overlooks the president's sleeping porch.

He then goes on to explain that the president, [00:12:00] the first lady and other Republican big wigs. tried to get Rebecca to come down out of the tree, but she would not.

The article ended by saying that Rebecca was still grinning from the tree when he had to leave to get a telegraph wire. So that was the last of the article. Eventually though Rebecca did come down and was reunited with the president and his wife, grace and. Over time, Rebecca was moved to the National Zoo with the rest of the animals.

She passed away not too long after that probably 'cause she was used to being pampered and was now living in a zoo. 

Cydni: I know. If you think about that, that's dramatic. She's like, where's the toilet paper? 

Sher: But in her time at the White House, she brought unexpected joy and the whole point of this is the White House, as I could only imagine, has got to be a high stress place. But because of Rebecca Joy and playfulness took place, even in the highest halls of power, they were able to still find joy in Proverbs chapter 17, [00:13:00] verse 22. It says, A Mary heart do with good like a medicine, but a broken spirit. Dry it up the bones. God wants us to find joy in the small things. If the White House can make room for a mischievous raccoon, maybe we can make more room in our lives for the unexpected, the lighthearted and those joyful moments. 

Cydni: We challenge you this week to do something playful. Maybe put a raccoon in the crockpot. We have a great recipe at the beginning of this episode. Maybe call someone a real scam. If this doesn't fit in your schedule, we challenge you to just be more lighthearted. No matter how difficult things are., Find the joy in the difficult moments. 

Sher: This brings us to our final thoughts. Rebecca. The raccoon may have been an unlikely White House resident, but her story reminds us that even in the most serious places, there's room for joy, curiosity, and a little mischief in the midst of political pressure and national [00:14:00] responsibilities. President and Mrs. Coolidge made space for laughter and lighthearted moments. Rebecca's antics, climbing trees, unrolling toilet paper, and dodging dignitaries brought fun to the lives of those around her. Her story is a sweet reminder that happiness often comes in unexpected forms and that a merry heart truly is the best medicine.

This is our prayer from Cydni and Sher. Welcome to this. Is that what we say? Welcome. Okay. we don't talk about that. why do you neglect your dog and then I have to come through with extra love for him every day? 

I don't know. . gasped. Gasped? Gasped! [00:15:00] Was that good? Nailed it. 

Cydni: extraordinary magnificence. 

Sher: I whatever. 

Cydni: What's wrong today? He went from Mountain Dew. Can I pour some in his mouth? You're fine. 

Sher: Fifty years. Yeah. 

Cydni: She's so old. right up there. in twenty years I'll be there.

Sher: Twenty years. That just kind of makes me want to kick you. Have a good week. Bye.