"We do not need more government. We need more culture." 1 Coolidge’s concept of culture was directly related to his work ethic of industry, ambition, and untiring effort or persistence. The application of this ethic to one’s life was the way to wealth. A community needed a certain amount of accumulated wealth to provide the good schools that would insure knowledge in all areas, broaden its citizens outlook, and make possible the expansion of liberty.

The culture of the Plymouth Notch in which Coolidge was raised revolved around the farm work tied to each season.

There were husking bees, apple paring bees and singing schools in the winter. Husking bees were a time to help a farmer husk his dried corn and then have a party. In my day, at mid-twentieth century, if you found a red kernelled ear, you could present it to a girl of your choice. If she accepted it, you got a kiss. I doubt that that was the case in the 1880’s in Plymouth Notch!

There were plays and dramatic exhibitions but no public dances that Coolidge was allowed to attend.

In "the summer we usually went to the circus…. In the autumn we visited the county fair."

The holidays were all celebrated in some fashion. The Fourth of July, his birthday, was a time for fishing with his dad and a picnic celebration after. 2

"Thanksgiving was a feast day for family reunions at the home of the grandparents. Christmas was a sacrament observed with the exchange of gifts, when the stockings were hung, and the spruce tree was lighted in the symbol of Christian faith and love." (28)

On other days when the work was done, Calvin would drop in at the store "to get the mail, exchange views on topics of interest" and meet some interesting visitors who might have dropped in. (28)

Finally, Coolidge’s concept of culture was also tied in with equality – no class distinctions – only contempt for "those who assumed superior airs.

Whenever the hired man or the hired girl wanted to go anywhere they were always understood to be entitled to my place in the wagon, in which case I remained at home. This gave me a very early training in democratic ideas and impressed upon me very forcibly the dignity and power, if not the superiority of labor." (29)

Character, idealism, exaltation of thrift and hard work, and culture were the focal points of Coolidge’s value system.

Endnotes

1 10 Reasons Why Coolidge and Dawes Should Have Your Support, Republican Presidential Campaign Card 1924, Coolidge Plymouth Notch

Museum Collection, paragraph 1, lines 4 & 5. Used with permission.

2 The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, New York, N.Y., 1929, 1989 edition, p. 160. This and subsequent quotations from the Autobiography, are used with the gracious permission of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Plymouth Notch, Vermont.