This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to Our American Stories.

Up next, a story on our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge. Here to tell the story of this

remarkable figure is Matthew Denhart of the Coolidge Foundation. Also presenting in this story is a

Calvin Coolidge impersonator, Tracy Messer, and he's reading from Coolidge's remarkable autobiography.

Let's get into the story.

Calvin Coolidge was born July 4, 1872.

He was born in his parents' small house, in fact, in his parents' bedroom, on the very bed

on which they slept, in the small village of Plymouth Notch, Vermont.

The village of Plymouth Notch was tiny, but very beautiful. The mountains surround the notch, as they call it. It's very picturesque. Maple trees surround on the mountains. So mapling in the

spring was a popular and necessary activity.

It was said that Calvin was able to get more maple sap out of a tree than most of the other youngsters in Plymouth Notch.

When he was growing up, there would have been only a few dozen residents, that is to say, a number of families and no more. It was rather isolated.

The people there were primarily farmers and some small merchants. Here's Calvin Coolidge on Plymouth

Notch. The neighborhood around the Notch was made up with people of exemplary habits.

Their speech was clean and their lives were above reproach. They had no mortgages on their firms. If any debts were contracted, they were promptly paid.

Credit was good and there was money in the savings bank.

The break of day saw them staring. Their industry continued until twilight.

Koolidge's own father was probably a good example of the kind of work that was done in Plymouth.

He ran the village store. He also was a farmer himself. His father also was very skilled with his hands.

He was a blacksmith. He was also the town tax collector. He was a constable, a justice of the peace, really sort of a model citizen, if you will.

Here's Calvin Coolidge on his father, Colonel John Coolidge.

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