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Pat Nixon looks admiringly at husband Richard during 1953 inauguration. In next
row are (I to r) Nixon's late father, mother (author of this article) and Uncle Ernest.
you are going to starve to death, son!"
It took him two more stops before he finally
made it into the house.
Richard hasn't changed much oyer the years.
He was always serious, intense and determined to
go after what he wanted. He never did much cut
ting up as a boy or as a young man. He was the
only one of my sons who seldom got reprimanded,
and even less frequently spanked. I never really
paddled him at all. This made my mother-in-law
furious. She insisted I was too easy with him. But
if I was, Mr. Nixon made up for it. When he spoke,
the boys knew they should move. There was no
dilly-dallying.
Richard is pretty much like his father in this
respect. I have never seen him paddle Tricia or
Julie. But if his daughters get into mischief, he'll
raise a finger, say "Children!", without particu
larly upping his voice, and they behave.
Richard never got an allowance as a boy. We
couldn't afford to give him much, anyway. Be
sides, when he needed anything he told his father
about it. Mr. Nixon never turned him down. He
knew Richard wouldn't ask unless it was really
necessary.
When Richard was in high school, Mr. Nixon
gave him a chance to earn some money. Every
morning after school, Richard drove to the pro
duce market in downtown Los Angeles, and on
his own picked out vegetables for our general
store. When he came back he washed and trimmed
them, and got them, ready for sale before he went
to school. Mr. Nixon said Richard used good
judgment when buying vegetables. Whatever
profit we made was his. His money went for school
books, clothes and, occasionally, a movie.
To concentrate on his school work, he dated
infrequently as a youth. Pat was the first girl
he ever fell in love with. It's been written that
they met in school. I don't know how that story
came about. Richard was already practicing law
and Pat was teaching typing and shorthand in
school when they met in a play at the Community
Theater in Whittier's Women's Club Auditorium.
Richard has always been interested in acting.
He used to participate in high-school and college
performances and, according to his drama coaches,
did quite well in them except for his inability to
cry on cue.
I was particularly anxious to see this play be
cause Richard had mentioned Pat to me a few
times. He never talked much about girls, which
made even a limited interest significant.
After the performance, Richard brought her over
to the house for a snack and introduced her to us.
After he had taken her home and returned, he
asked me what' I thought of her. I told him I
thought she did her part very nicely. Since we
had only just met, it was too early for me to form
a personal opinion. Yet as I got to see her more
often, I grew to like her. It did not come as a
surprise when Richard told me they would get
married.
I feel Pat has been very helpful to his career,
not just because she did a lot of his secretarial
work when he campaigned for the House of Rep
resentatives and the Senate, but because she
knows her responsibilities as a wife and acts
accordingly. She has been a good wife and mother.
You can see I'm also very proud of my daughter-in-law.
To be sure, though, my son is not hard to
live with. He is meticulously neat. As a boy, I
never had to remind him to clean his room. He
always kept his clothes tidy and was quite par
ticular about his shirts. They had to be pressed
without a wrinkle in them. I know this well. I -did
the pressing.
Also, and this Richard inherited from his father,
he is punctual to the minute. Mr. Nixon hated be
ing late or having anyone else be late. He would
never have stood for it in the boys.
Richard was only a fair eater, at best. He liked
chopped meats and pies, but he never grew en
thusiastic about any particular dish. When Pat
asked me for recipes that would please him
and she is a very good cook herself I honestly
could only suggest apple and cherry pies.
Richard has always been a sensitive boy but
he can no more show his feelings openly than
he can show pain. . ,
(Continued on page 6)
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The Nixon brothers: Don in tire and (I to r)
Richard, Harold and Arthur. Richard was nine.
Harold watched over kid brother
Dick, 3. Harold died when 33.
Three cousins (on left) visit Richard and Harold
at Nixon family get-together in the mid-1910s.
At Fulton High School, Richard (center, second
row) was top student and football player, too.