A Weekend at Jack's

Mops flew and paintbrushes were busy at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. It was spring cleaning time, and special elbow grease was necessary. Lester B. Pearson, Canada's Prime Minister of a month, was flying in for the first weekend of the season, and the President wanted everything shipshape. Up from Washington hurried a special housekeeping crew to clear away the winter's cobwebs from Kennedy's rambling white clapboard cottage. Across the way at Bobby's house, where Mike Pearson would sleep, roofers scampered around repairing gutters and tacking down loose shingles. Well drillers sank a dry shaft into the front lawn to take the roof runoff in case it rained. Over in the Hyannis marina four miles away, a presidential yacht, the Patrick J., bobbed at anchor, all tuned and ready for an afternoon's cruise. Baxter's Fish Market was standing anxiously by, awaiting the order for lobsters and fish for chowder. White House Chef Rene Verdon had bought $150 worth of food at a Hyannis supermarket, and carefully insisted on his full quota of trading stamps. Years of Diplomacy. A friendly crowd of 500 was at Otis Air Force Base as Pearson's Comet touched down from Ottawa. After striding forward to meet his northern neighbor, Kennedy set the tone of the meeting. "We share more than geography," he said. "A history, a common commitment to freedom and a common hope for freedom, and in this great cause Canada and the U.S. stand side by side." Then the two men were off to begin their conversations. As he stood on Kennedy's front lawn in a blustery Cape Cod wind, Pearson was asked by shivering reporters what he thought about the weather. "It's far worse here than where I come from," he grinned. Retorted Kennedy: "It takes years of diplomacy to be able to say that." Diplomatic as ever, Pearson continued: "When we've finished our talks, it'll be warm and sunny. There'll be blue skies and tulips." Sunny it was, at least in talk. Out on the Kennedy patio in wicker chairs, walking around the deep green lawn, beside a crackling fire or over poached flounder, the two talked for ten hours in all. The substance was about as expected. Canada will live up to its word on nuclear arms; U.S. and Canadian officials will work out new arrangements for sharing defense production; labor leaders from both sides will meet to settle a bitter dispute between rival Canadian and U.S. unions on the Great Lakes. The list of topics also included trade across the border; the Columbia River power project, which has been stalled for two years; Canada's desire for a twelve-mile fishing limit. Marginal Notes. The President and the Prime Minister were quite obviously pleased with their accomplishment and felt that most, if not all, the differences that had arisen between the two countries in the last year of the Diefenbaker regime had been dispelled. At a cocktail party the first afternoon, Pearson brought down the roof by quipping, when an aide handed him a memo, "Mr. President, I've just found this piece of paper lying around. I'd better check to make sure there are no marginal notes on it."* Humor and good fellowship filled the room, and Pearson moved easily among the reporters, exchanging jokes and talking about baseball. "Well," he said, "I used to be in the opposition so I've always felt a certain affinity for the New York Mets and their troubles. Now, of course, I support the Yankees."

* The now-famous State Department memo that somehow fell into Diefenbaker's hands after the President's 1961 Ottawa visit was rumored to have a notation penciled by Kennedy referring to Diefenbaker as an s.o.b. Washington insists Kennedy would never have done such a thing.

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