The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
AUGUST 11, 1959
CONCORD, N.H. —On Thursday morning of last week we left Boston and stopped at Kittery, Maine, for lunch at the home of my sister-in-law, Mrs. John Cutter. There Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Lash and their son and his friend joined us in their car.
The house is right on the water. In fact, at high tide the water is practically at the foot of the bank, with no beach to speak of. There were many little boats in the harbor—one with a yellow sail and one with a blue one looked very gay sailing by. I could not help thinking that they must remind my sister-in-law of her early youth out on the cape when she and her brothers were sailing just such small boats themselves.
After an early lunch we left her and went on to Castine, Maine, with our usual stop just outside of Belfast, at Perry's Nut House, to buy jams and jellies and assorted nuts.
My granddaughter, Nina Roosevelt, Miss Maureen Corr and I spent the night with Bishop and Mrs. William Scarlett and the others stayed at the Manor House in Castine. Bishop Scarlett invited my old friend, Molly Dewson, to dine along with us, and though she said she had not been very well she seemed to have her old sense of humor and strong personality unimpaired. After dinner about five or six couples joined us and we discussed questions of the present day, such as who should be the next Democratic nominee—a question I never can really answer, since I haven't as yet made up my mind. But the candidates were all well examined, and I suppose many other small groups are doing the same.
After breakfast the next morning we started off feeling very happy over having seen so many good and kind friends again. This time we were bound for Campobello Island and we were a little surprised to find that we arrived at 3:00 p.m. even though we really dawdled over lunch. The restaurant in Machias was crowded past belief and all because the government is building one of its strongest warning stations nearby. This project brings a great many workers into the town every day from outlying sections. They come in even from Campobello. Some of the work is difficult and requires technical skill, so the wages are very good.
While we were eating lunch we noticed a great many people looking out of the window at the river flowing just below us and we discovered they were watching the salmon jump. The minute our two boys had finished eating they dashed out to the river bank for a closer look and I think they would gladly have stopped then and there and gone fishing.
Fortunately, on Saturday afternoon the fog cleared sufficiently so that all the young people went deep-sea fishing. My granddaughter, Nina, caught the biggest pollock, weighing 10 pounds. Everyone was busy pulling up smaller pollock and cod, so I think chowder will be the order of the day for sometime to come. Lobsters, of course, are what everyone clamors for when they first arrive, and we were given delicious ones the very first evening.
We had the opportunity on Saturday afternoon while the bay was clear of fog to go across to Mr. Harry Mattin's factory and see the fish brought in and the process by which the scales are removed and prepared for the various uses for which they are now required, such as the making of lipstick, eye shadow, nail enamel and costume jewelry.
Our hostesses, Mrs. Victor Hammer and my daughter-in-law, Anne, invited practically the whole island for tea, so, though I left on Sunday morning, I really saw many of the young islanders whom I had not seen since they were very young, and some of their parents.
Early Sunday morning we left again in the fog and were glad when we got inland to find it clearing up.
E.R.
(Copyright, 1959, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 11, 1959
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
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The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
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