picture margaret dumont now. she decides to stay in cuba where she stays until 1919. george in south america. that worked well. eventually she takes the children to florida. they returned to washington, d.c. betty begins keeping a diary of her day-to-day activities. went to the library of congress. it is all marble and paintings. george and cora moved and powerful social circles in washington. there was a lovely party given by vice president coolidge and his wife. betty observed interacting with the social set here. she observes that good manners are actually rather useful to hide behind. this is a skill that will serve her later in life. betty now seeks to feel excitement. she is bored. any kind of excitement. even fear. she wrote, i remember when we were very young, i always meant -- ran past the finish line and ran and ran and ran until i dropped, half strangled when my endurance ran out. i just could not stop before that. my brother george would say, you are crazy. you are crazy, he would shout. why don't you stop? but betty could not stop. that was 1921. george i

picture margaret dumont now. she decides to stay in cuba where she stays until 1919. george in south america. that worked well. eventually she takes the children to florida. they returned to washington, d.c. betty begins keeping a diary of her day-to-day activities. went to the library of congress. it is all marble and paintings. george and cora moved and powerful social circles in washington. there was a lovely party given by vice president coolidge and his wife. betty observed interacting with the social set here. she observes that good manners are actually rather useful to hide behind. this is a skill that will serve her later in life. betty now seeks to feel excitement. she is bored. any kind of excitement. even fear. she wrote, i remember when we were very young, i always meant past the finish line and ran and ran and ran until i dropped half strangled when my endurance ran out. i just could not stop before that. my brother george would say, you are crazy. you are crazy, he would shout. why don't you stop? but betty could not stop. that was 1921. george is posted

picture margaret dumont. she decides to stay in cuba, where she stays until 1919 george being in south america. i think that worked well for her. eventually she takes the children to florida to wait for george. they return to washington dc. betty begins keeping a diary of her day to day activities. it reads like this. george and cora move and powerful social circles. they give affairs at their home. betty observes them interacting with a social set here. she notices managed the useful -- notices manners can be useful. good manners are useful to hide behind. this is a skill that will serve her later in life. she seeks excitement. she wrote, i remember when we were very young and running races. i would always run past the finish line and ran and ran and ran until i dropped, half strangled when my endurance ran out. i couldn't stop before that. my brother george would use to go mad. you stop? george is posted to hawaii. he is in command of the marines there. they begin to write magazine articles while they are i

when i picture her now, i picture a cross between margaret dumont of the marx brother films and a character from downton abbey. it is 1910. george is station and in maine. the family will live here until 1914. betty has siblings born in 1912 and in 1914, both born in maine. she liked being outside, to run through the maine woods. she said that she felt she was built around aloneness, that that was most comfortable for her. from the age of four, she would hide among the plane trees -- pine trees, look up at the sky here the water nearby, and stay there for hours and hours sometimes all day into the evening. it the family, in the beginning, got worried, and would look for her, and after a while would alert the police. the police knew the woods, knew where she would hide, go out and find her. betty would spend her days in the woods, which didn't seem to bother cora, but it was a different time. betty never really had a best friend, never really confided in anyone. her father was often away. there she was with cora and her siblings. cora again unable to really help the children or tell them tha