Truman’s morning walks were particularly troublesome to his Secret Service detail. (The one pictured above is from 1950.) Four agents were assigned to accompany him, one at the front, one on each side, and one at the back. The poor agent at the front – the point man – simply had to guess which way Truman was headed. Often he guessed wrong. “We lost a few of them that way,” remembered Floyd Boring.
The presidential walks inevitably created potentially dangerous situations, particularly considering Washington’s notoriously bad drivers. To keep Truman from getting run over while crossing the street, the Secret Service came up with an ingenious solution. The traffic lights around the White House were rigged so they could be turned red in all directions whenever the ambulating president approached, allowing him to complete his two-mile walk swiftly and safely. It didn’t take long for Truman to notice his peculiar effect on traffic lights, and he put an end to the practice. “I’ll wait for the light like any other pedestrian,” he insisted.
Truman deeply admired his Secret Service agents, and the feeling was mutual. He enjoyed chatting with them on his morning walks. “He would treat us almost like sons,” remembered Rex Scouten, an agent who served on Truman’s detail. “He talked nearly the whole time.” “He never came on as being superior,” recalled Floyd Boring, another Truman agent. “He could talk to anyone! … He never got swellheaded – never got, you know, swagly.” When Boring’s wife had a baby, Truman went to the hospital to visit her and the newborn. One Christmas when he was back home in Independence, Truman was aghast to learn that several agents assigned to him were standing outside in the snow. Truman invited them to the back porch to dry off. (Several years later, when agents assigned to President Eisenhower asked him if they could stand on the back porch of his cabin during a downpour, Ike answered, “Nothin’ doing.”)
