‘the biggest park in the world’. She joked to her family that ‘I haven’t ridden for a year so my derrier was plenty sore afterwards’.20 A family friend, Mrs Wilson, took her window-shopping at the House of Paquin. ‘I wore my red velvet and coat … she told me to be sure to tell you how nice she thought I looked.’21
For Thanksgiving, she was invited to dinner ‘with all the trimmings’ with Mrs Larkin, Hope’s chaperone, and attended a Thanksgiving mass at the Madeleine Church: ‘Nearly all Americans in Paris go.’ She was invited to London for Christmas by her parents’ friend Lady Calder, but revealed to Eunice that she had decided to go skiing instead. She asked Eunice to send her photographs from home, ‘as I love to see how everyone is looking’. Kick was always to be found carrying her beloved camera. She had tried to take snapshots of the Paris sights to send home, but was cast down by the awful weather: ‘It is very difficult to take pictures here as the sun is never out. It is nearly always raining or foggy.’22 She was missing home, and all things American: ‘You should see the football they play over here … dressed in little shorts and kick a ball around. Very sissified I think.’
She told Eunice that the French priests looked very funny: ‘They all wear little hats like saucers.’ As Christmas approached, she was homesick for her family, who, as usual, were gathering at Palm Beach. For once, she was sentimental, writing to Eunice: ‘I miss you very much and would give my right arm for a glimpse of your funny-looking mug.’23 She told her parents that there were times when she felt like ‘jumping the next boat’.
One of the attractions of Neuilly was that the girls were encouraged to travel in their vacations. Kick planned to ski at the Winter Palace in Gstaad and wrote to her parents to discuss the financial side of the trip. Rose and Joe encouraged frugality, and Kick convinced them that because the trip was in Switzerland, she could practise her French (though in reality Gstaad was in a predominantly German-speaking canton). It was her first Christmas without the family, and far from home. She told Bobby, ‘I shall be skiing through all the mountains while you are swimming in Palm Beach,’ but she hoped that ‘Daddy will call up on Xmas so I can talk to you all’.24
9
Hope you don’t think I’m gallivanting like a chicken over here.
Kick Kennedy
It was a magical Winter Wonderland and Kick felt as if she was in another world as she gazed at the rows of snow-capped pines and the enormous fairy-tale hotel nestling under the Swiss Alps, which loomed over the tiny village of Gstaad. Horse-drawn sleighs draped in soft furs carried the girls to their destination: the famous Winter Palace Hotel. The view was breathtaking. The Palace, lit up at night, encircled a huge skating rink, and was set on a hill. The heavy snow muffled the sound, creating a peaceful, tranquil atmosphere.
Kick was looking forward to the winter sports – tobogganing, ice-skating and skiing. She had spent the week before Christmas planning her winter vacation, going to the hairdressers for a ‘permanent’, having her asthma injection and buying all her skiing things. ‘My allowance dwindles like sand,’ she told Rose.1
On Christmas Eve the girls attended Midnight Mass. The cold, fresh air made them hungry and when they got back to the Winter Palace they arranged a late-night feast. Kick’s French perhaps wasn’t quite as good as she thought it was: when she ordered five egg sandwiches from room service, she was surprised when the waiter arrived with sixteen ham ones. The girls ate them and then felt sick.2
Kick got a suntan from skiing, which she confessed to Bobby was now her favourite sport: ‘The best part of all is when the snow is very deep and you fall in a nice, soft white bed.’3 She joked that she had nearly killed herself a couple of times. She told Bobby about the special sleds that took the girls to mass, and the horse races in the snow: ‘The horses jump beautifully.’ And to her sister Jean she wrote about the little girls who were the best skiers she had ever seen. She bought a new Swiss sports watch as a Christmas present to herself.
On Christmas Day a man dressed as Santa Claus came and delivered presents. In the evening there was a Winter Ball. She told Jean that they travelled everywhere by sleighs: ‘You should have seen us flying down the hill every morning to the village.’4
Rose had sent Kick snapshots from home: ‘The pictures of the family are adorable.’ One of them was of the other Kennedy girls on their ponies: ‘none of you look different yet. I wonder if you will be when I come home.’5
Rose had suggested that they ship over her favourite records for her Christmas present. Kick was delighted: ‘The record idea is swell.’ Her mother sent a list of the latest songs, and Kick added some extra: ‘I should really like the new songs of “Cole Porter” … also I found a Dream, Thanks a Million, Let’s Swing it, Now You’ve Got Me Doing It.’6 She also asked for charms for her bracelet, skirts and sweaters in pastel shades and ‘one of those evening bags that have everything in them’.7
Jack was once again seriously ill. He had returned from England with offers of places at both Harvard and Princeton. He chose Princeton in order to be with his Choate friends. But after a brief stint he returned home to be under the supervision of his Boston doctors, who suspected he had leukaemia. His skin was yellow and brown and he was frighteningly thin. Lem and another Princeton friend sent a cable: ‘Tell us what time to arrive for funeral.’8
Meanwhile, his favourite sister was living the high life in Gstaad. Kick noted the presence of the Earl of Dudley, his sister Patricia and his son William. The boy was a year older than Kick, and took a fancy to one of her Irish friends. Kick also bumped into Derek Richardson at Gstaad. He was an American studying at Cambridge University. She had first met Derek at the home of Charlotte McDonnell in Southampton in the Hamptons.
Derek was instantly attracted to Kick and invited her to a Cambridge vs Oxford hockey game on 22 January 1936. She wrote to her parents asking for permission to visit Cambridge: ‘this is a rush note to give you more details about why and where I should like to go to England … I could fly over quite easily from Le Bourget … I suppose this sounds fantastic and I wouldn’t miss anything as Thurs is free …’ She assured Rose that she would stay with Lady Calder: ‘will you please cable immediately so I can let him know’.
Joe was unimpressed and sent a telegram: ‘MOTHER AND I BOTH FEEL YOU SHOULD NOT GO TO LONDON THIS TIME PLENTY OF OTHER OPPORTUNITIES AND WE’LL ARRANGE IT LATER EXPLAINING MORE FULLY IN LETTER LOVE DAD’. He sent a follow-up letter from Palm Beach, explaining their position: ‘you know mother and I have no objection to your seeing as many things as you can over there and we want you to, but the idea of merely going over for a game was not quite the thing to do’.9 He also explained that his ‘business relationship’ with Sir James Calder was under strain: ‘I am sure you will understand this.’ Calder owned Haig & Haig whisky and exported via Joe, who had the
