SUMMER IN NANTUCKET

(Grace Hall Hemingway and Ernest leaving for Nantucket, August 1910)

Dear Ernest,

What wonderful summers you have! Tell me more about clamming in the river. It sounds positively muddy and fun! I love that you brought a clam back to your classroom and put it in the fish tank where it promptly clamped down on the tail of that poor unsuspecting fantail gold fish - that must have put quite a scare into that poor fish! Never mind how riotous it must have been as it clunked and thunked, dragging that clam in a panic around the tank. It's a wonder the class was able to get any work done at all that day with all that excitement.

Nantucket sounds marvelous. I'm not surprised you're fishing up a storm and catching everything in sight. Those rod and reel skills you perfected in Michigan are coming in handy fishing the Nantucket Sound. For myself it was sailing that won my heart. Summers were filled with racing and just sailing the islands, putting ashore at the likes of Cuttyhunk and Nashawena where we'd chase the wild sheep and sunbath on the beach. How I LOVED the Edgartown race weekend where we'd participate in the Round the Island Race: Every year in July, Edgartown Yacht Club makes its own unique contribution to the maritime traditions of Martha’s Vineyard by perpetuating its historic ’Round-the-Island Race (’RTI) that has been repeated annually since 1938.

Ernest, it's too bad you didn't experience the thrill, yourself, of the excitement and competition of the Round the Island Race. You would have loved it! It's a spectacular sailing race that equals any roller coaster, when there's a stiff wind. Many is the time we'd be healing so far over that water was pouring in over the gunnels and we'd be scrambling into the harnesses and hanging out over the side, serving as live ballast as we laughed and shouted and maneuvered the channels around the islands. What fun!

It's wonderful that you had the opportunity to go sailing to Great Point. Yes, that open water can be rough and I love that you took to the open ocean and "shipped water grandly." It is so much fun to feel the power of the wind in the sail as the hull of your boat slaps along in the waves and the sail beats madly as you tack your way along the island shore to the point light house. How marvelous that you were exactly were the Atlantic ocean meets the Nantucket Sound. That water has the capacity to really toss you around, with the tides and the wind working it into a rare state of agitation. Good for you for taking on the challenge so splendidly!

I love your description of the large sword fish sword that you acquired from "an old salt." They are the best kind of artifacts, as their provenience has the opportunity to becomes richer and more embellished with time. 

Thank you for taking the time to go with your mother to her suffrage meeting. The women's right to vote, and to own property, was to continue to be a point of contention for quite some time. Women need the support of good men, even young men like yourself. 

Please do get out there to the sea and catch a few sea trout. There's nothing like a "gamy" fish to put up a fight and make you feel like you earned your dinner.

Hugs to you and Mother Hemingway,
Betsy McDowell