Jacqueline Kennedy - Caroline Kennedy [113]
What—when you went to Hyannis Port or Newport or Palm Beach, where he'd have more time with the children. Of course, he couldn't lift them or play with them himself, could he, with the back?
THE FIRST FAMILY, HYANNIS PORT, 1963
Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston
He'd get on the floor, then he could really roll around with them. And he used to—he could lift Caroline up and—at least, a little—he used to throw her around an awful lot before we got to the White House.62 But, well, they'd be in our room in the morning, and then he'd swim with them for about an hour, and then he always wanted them to come out on the boat with us. A lot of times, you know, they really were quite young. They'd get awfully cranky if they missed their nap. But he always wanted them to come, so you'd put them to bed inside for half an hour or something, and maybe they would get whiny, but he always wanted them there. Or, at Camp David and things, you'd sort of sit out and have supper with them or you'd run on the lawn, and everything.
What place relaxed him most, do you think, of the various places you went?
It was really the boat that relaxed him the most. Before he was President, it was to go out on his father's boat, the Marlin—and then the Honey Fitz. And the reason for that was, there was no telephone. He was awful about the phone. It could—never—ring but he wouldn't answer it. You know, calls would come, or else he'd be getting ten people on the phone. So, there, I mean, rain or shine—I can remember him taking Adlai Stevenson out on the Honey Fitz one day in late October in Newport—hurricane season. I got two polo coats for Adlai and a pith helmet of my stepfather's. And Jack was sitting in the back in a black sweater, the hair—the wind blowing his hair, blissfully happy with fish chowder. And I was inside, with two blankets on, and drinking hot soup. That's how cold it was. He just thought everyone would love that boat because that was his away from care. It was for him what getting out on a horse was for me—in the air, no phone. I'm not that mad for riding horses or hunting. But the release from tension in the air. He loved the sun and the water and no phone. And you know, friends there—you always had friends there that—he never used the boat for working—but whoever you want to relax with.
THE HONEY FITZ
Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston
PRESIDENT AND MRS. KENNEDY SAIL WITH HER MOTHER AND STEPFATHER OFF NEWPORT, 1962
Robert Knudsen, White House/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston
THE PRESIDENT AND CAROLINE ON THE HONEY FITZ
Bob Sandberg, Look magazine/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston
What did he think of all these skits about himself, like The First Family, and so on? Did he ever listen to them?
I think he listened. I'm not sure he listened to all of that record.63 I listened to one side, and then I threw it away because I didn't want my children to see it. And I guess, he sort of took it. You know, I thought it was so unfair that he didn't—I guess he just accepted it. I mean, he obviously didn't like it, but I was the one who got much more worked up about those things. I thought it was so mean. I didn't care if they made fun of me or anything, but when they made fun of little children— And the first year he was President, I went to the Women's Press Club dinner. He had a fever that night, and so Lyndon took me. It's a tradition for the President and his wife to go—and a woman named Bonnie Angelo came out on a tricycle as Caroline and sang some awful song.64 And the next year, I wouldn't go and that Bonnie Angelo was president. Pierre really got upset by that. And