"The Hyannis Port Story" is a short story that was originally intended for publication in The Saturday Evening Post but was canceled following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. It was eventually printed in the collections Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968 and Complete Stories in 2017.
Plot Summary[]
Barry Goldwater
During a meeting the North Crawford Lions Club, a young college student, Robert Taft Rumfoord, makes a speech decrying the influence of Democratic Party in the United States and in his hometown of Hyannis Port, the summer residence of the Kennedy family, including current President John F. Kennedy. Although he seems largely disinterested in politics, halfheartedly supporting Barry Goldwater and ending personal income taxes, he is encouraged by his mother Clarice and especially his father, Commodore William Howard Taft Rumfoord, who are in attendance. At the end of his speech Hay Boyden, a local Kennedy Democrat, harangues Robert and gets into a verbal altercation with the elder Rumfoord. After the meeting, Boyden gets into an unrelated argument with a local storm window installer who also does bathtub enclosures. Boyden recently purchased a bathtub enclosure from him but insisted on installing it himself, leading to damages he tried to blame on the merchandise. The installer dismisses him curtly and walks away. Watching from a distance, William Rumfoord assumes the two were arguing about Goldwater and his son's political positions and, learning the installer's trade, orders storm windows for his entire four story house in gratitude. He learns that Rumfoord calls himself "Commodore" because he served as such in the Hyannis Port Yacht Club in 1946, the last time he had a job of any kind.
Kennedy Compound, Hyannis Port
The installer drives his truck down to Hyannis Port in late June. The Rumfoords live on Irving Avenue, the same as the Kennedy family, and due to a visit by the president traffic to Hyannis Port is atrocious due to spectators hoping to catch a glimpse. Denied entrance to the street by the Secret Service, the installer eats at a dinner where all the waffles are named after members of the Kennedy family and calls the Rumfoord's so John, their butler, can give his personal information to the Secret Service to allow him in. The installer arrives to find that the Rumfoord have a huge portrait of Barry Goldwater with bicycle reflectors for pupils, surrounded by floor lights, on the second floor of their house facing the Kennedy compound opposite them on the street. William Rumfoord treats him like and honor guest and invites him for cocktails and dinner, saying he can start work the next day. The two of them, along with Clarice, sit on the veranda facing the Kennedy compound, watching the disappointed sightseers who've hoped to see a Kennedy. John the butler returns, having been sent among them with a bowl full of Goldwater buttons. A discontented group of people who hiked the 67 miles from Boston ask to lay on Rumfoord's lawn which he allows and says they're also welcome to lemonade if they put on Goldwater buttons, which they gladly do.
John F. Kennedy
Several tour boats sail through the harbor with amplified tour guides explaining the sights. When someone asks about the Rumfoord estate, a tour guide replies that he doesn't know how the Rumfoords make their money but that they don't work, "just sit on that porch, and drink martinis, and let the old mazooma roll in." Rumfoord is enraged and at this moment Secret Service agent Raymond Boyle, liaison between the Kennedy family and the Rumfoords, calls. Robert was apprehended trying to board the Marlin, the boat owned by the President's father, Joseph Kennedy, for a romantic encounter with Sheila Kennedy, the president's fourth cousin who just arrived from Ireland. Robert and Sheila come home from dinner and announce that they plan to marry. Clarice, looking much relieved after Robert announces he won't be making political speeches anymore, joins Rumfoord and the installer on the veranda for brandy. John the butler asks if it's time to turn the flood lights on the large Goldwater portrait, but Rumfoord says they'll leave them off for the night, although he still supports him. Rumfoord decides he'll have to find work to do if he wants to regain a sense of self-dignity. At that moment, President Kennedy leaves the compound and asks if there's anything wrong with the sign. Told that they're just leaving it off tonight, Kennedy says he's with Khrushchev's son-in-law who'd like the see it. Rumfoord complies and Kennedy asks if he can leave it on so he can find his way home.[1]
- ↑ "The Hyannis Port Story", Complete Stories, pp. 472-480.