Five Days with Grandfather

President Eisenhower had carefully plotted his vacation plans. For the past two summers he had been hampered, on his annual arrival in Denver, with a load of unfinished business. For the first few weeks he had found himself tied to his desk at Lowry Air Force Base almost half of each day, signing bills and attending to leftover work from Washington. This summer, determined to relax for a couple of weeks at least, he had boned away at his chores before leaving on vacation. Last week his briefcase was empty, and except for some routine duties, Ike could look forward to a fortnight of almost uninterrupted vacationing. "This year," he announced on his arrival in Denver, "I'm going to have a good time."

Soup & 412 Trout. The President's idea of a good time covers a lot of territory--golf, bridge, fishing, shooting, painting, and even cooking. Last week he was happily dabbling in his off-duty hobbies. By 6 o'clock on his first morning in Denver, he was up and around the kitchen of Mrs. Elivera Doud, his mother-in-law, cooking up a huge kettle of his celebrated vegetable soup.

After two days shaking off his Washington tensions, the President left for five days at the mountain ranch of his good friend, Denver Banker Aksel Nielsen. Ike had hoped to commute regularly by air between Denver and the ranch this summer, and had brought his twin-engined Aero Commander plane along as a taxi, but Presidential Pilot William Draper felt that the thin mountain air and the sudden thunderstorms made flying too risky, so Ike reluctantly made the 75-mile trip by Cadillac.

At Byers Peak Ranch (altitude: 8,600 ft.), Ike found that some changes had been made since his last visit. Near the rustic cabin where the President had roughed it in previous years, Host Nielsen had built a comfortable new prefabricated rambler with an ultramodern electric kitchen calculated to delight an old K.P. like Ike. St. Louis Creek had been deepened in spots for better fishing, and freshly stocked with trout, and a new, one-acre pond near the house was leaping with 412 hungry rainbow trout which Nielsen had thoughtfully dumped in a week before at a cost of $500.

The President's greatest pleasure, however, was in a guest who turned up at the ranch two hours after his own arrival. Grandson David Eisenhower, 7, had been spending two weeks at a nearby boys' camp, and when Ike realized how close it was, he jumped at the chance to have David all to himself for the first time. Barbara Eisenhower agreed to let her son spend five days with Grandfather before he returned to his home in Fort Belvoir, Va. That night Ike set the table himself, and placed a steaming bowl of his vegetable soup in front of David.

Flapjacks & Hip Boots. Next morning the President cooked breakfast (flapjacks and link sausages), and Nielsen gave a casting lesson to David and Jack Tkach, twelve-year-old son of Major Walter Tkach, assistant White House physician, who accompanied Ike. The weather was drizzly, so the President set up his easel in the living room and was soon absorbed in painting the view of the mountains from a large picture window. Later in the morning he strolled to a nearby pasture to whack old golf balls at a target; by 11:30 he and Nielsen, in hip boots, were headed for the trout stream. Within a few minutes Ike caught a fine 2-lb. rainbow.

Under the careful coaching of Grandfather and "Mr. Nielsen," young David tried his inexpert hand at fly-casting, driving a golf ball, and riding one of the dappled horses in Nielsen's stable. One day the press came by to record David's progress. Said Ike proudly: "He wants to fish, he wants to play golf, he wants to ride. There are so many things he wants to do, and like all little boys, he doesn't know which one he wants." When a reporter commented on David's easy handling of a big horse, Ike said: "Well, after all, I was riding in Kansas when I was his age."

Obedience Test. Over the weekend, David and Grandfather were hosts at a hot-dog and pop party for 32 of David's recent campmates. "The President and his staff, Dwight David Eisenhower II, invite the members of Sky Line Ranch to Byers Peak Ranch for a luncheon," read the invitation. Ike found himself surrounded and cut off by a swarm of pop-eyed youngsters. "Boy, I've never met a President before!" said one little boy. "A lot of people twice your age have never met one either" confided Ike.

This week the Eisenhowers came down from the mountains for a visit in Den ver at Great-Grandmother Doud's. "He's a good boy," said Ike, swelling with grandfatherly pride. "He does exactly what you tell him."

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