Swimming with the Presidents
This fun fact doesn't care for clothing.
Howdy! Joey here with more Fun Fact Friyay. Put on your swimming cap and make sure those goggles are tight. We’re going for a dip. BUT FIRST…
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John Quincy Adams lost his clothes while swimming in the Potomac River and had to walk back naked to the White House.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump squared off in the first U.S. presidential debate of the season. The debate was…fine, probably. Maybe.
I’m writing this shortly before the debate has actually started, so rather than trying to predict whatever shenanigans went on, we’re just going to share another fact from a president who served nearly 200 years ago.
John Quincy Adams is the sixth president of America, though perhaps you know him better as the son of John Adams, the titular John Adams of the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams.
When JQA was in the White House, he was a fan of taking a dip in the Potomac River. This is apparently very common among Presidents, but since Quincy was one of the first, he was truly an original swimmer.
If you’ve ever balled up a wet swimsuit into a bag, you know the ensuing smell lingers for at least a fortnight. So, Adams opted to ditch his clothes when he went for a swim. One morning, a nasty gust of wind soured his whole good vibes.
As the President told it, the wind blew his clothes away from the area. Since he didn’t know where they ended up, he had to hide in “gnat-ridden misery” until he could sneak back into the White House undetected. That’s a walk of about one-and-a-half miles AFTER a gnat attack.
Here’s another story that I enjoy, even though it is likely not true: Anne Royall, who’s sometimes credited as the first female journalist, was trying to get an interview with Adams. JQA, perhaps not acquiescing to the conversation, went off to swim in the river.
Not to be deterred, Royall approached the river’s edge and sat on the president’s clothes. She refused to move until he finished the interview.
Again, this story has become somewhat of a tall tale over time—the dates of Royall’s career in DC do not really match up with Adams’s leaving the White House)—but it’s pretty delightful. If you want to tell it, I won’t blame you.