PIECE BY PIECE: ERNESTINE’S GIFT FOR PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

A small but feel-good historical anecdote. The true story of an elaborate clock case that a young Mexican American resident of San Antonio made for Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a thank-you gift. A gingerbread fantasy crafted from 156 pieces of sugar pine crates saved from New Deal food deliveries, the 40-inch-high case sits today in the FDR Presidential Library. It was made in 1937 in recognition of help received during the Great Depression. The letter to the president that she composed to go with the gift, which is excerpted in the narrative and shown in full at the end, is likewise marvelous.