Cathy Eaton and her cousin Mary Eaton are pictured here with Cyrus Eaton on the dock at Deep Cove.
Cathy Eaton pictured with her sister Elizabeth at waterfall outside of Pugwash in 2013. Cathy has been working on an oral history project of the people (behind the scenes) who worked to make the Pugwash conferences a success due to their graciousness and friendliness. Elizabeth spent the summer in 2013 managing Thinkers Lodge, supervising the intern, and organizing the events.
Tim Tuttle (pictured here) and Jessica Flynn interviewed Cathy Eaton
1. Where did you grow up?
I was born in 1950, and I grew up in Northfield, Ohio, on a cattle farm next to my grandfather’s cattle farm. I have two older brothers and a younger sister. My oldest brother, Cyrus, was involved with the shorthorn cattle. He was a member of 4-H and helped take care of the cattle, harvest the hay, and show the cattle. John, Elizabeth, and I were more involved with the horses, which we showed in hunting and jumping classes around Ohio and Pennsylvania. What I loved about my childhood was being outside. Like Grampa, all of us were very athletic and I loved playing sports. My mother was a teacher, and my father’s companies were involved with international trade, which I believe is another avenue towards Peace.
Now I live in Bedford, New Hampshire, where I have taught literature, fiction writing, and freshman composition for 21 years. I have published two books. One is a collection of short stories and the other is an adventure story about pirates and ghosts and a fishing village in Nova Scotia. My writing website is cathyeatonfiction.com. I have been married for 36 years to Michael Murphy. I have a son, Colin, who is 31 and an industrial designer, and another son, Devon, who is a sculpture in glass, metal, and wood.
2. What do you remember about Pugwash at the time of the cold war?
I didn’t know much about Pugwash when I was growing up. I remember loving my one visit there when I was ten. It was Canada Day, and I loved seeing the Scottish dances and hearing the bagpipes. We were having a family reunion.
I didn’t return to Pugwash until the last ten years or so, and I have been to Pugwash about fives times in those years. In 2010, I began the oral histories. My goal was to interview people from Pugwash and Nova Scotia who were involved in the Pugwash Peace Conferences from behind the scenes: the cooks, the drivers, the people who billeted conference attendees, the people who take care of Thinkers Lodge, the men and women who saved the Lodge when it caught fire. This oral histories project is a work in progress that you are continuing by doing your interviews. You can check out the website thinkerslodgeoralhistories.com. With Mandy Jamieson, Adele Wick, and Susie Chou, I taped the people I interviewed and we took photographs. Copies of the taped interviews are being kept by the Cumberland Historical Society. Vivian Godfrey would know where they are. I hope very much to include the interviews you do and the reflections you write on our website.
Your teacher, Teresa Kewachuk, was much more aware about the cold war from an early age than I was.
Only in the last 10 to 15 years have I been learning about the role the Pugwash Peace Conferences have played in cutting down the danger of nuclear war and promoting peace. As an English teacher at a community college in New Hampshire, I ask my students to read literature from around the world. We have speakers come from different countries to share their culture, to share their journeys to this country, and to share what it is like to adjust to living in America. This year we had speakers from Iraq, from the Philippines, India, and Morroco. We assisted at a multi-cultural fair at our college and helped plant vegetable seeds for the 126 gardens that refugees from Nepal, Burundi, and West Africa plant and tend at our college. This is my effort to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps. I believe the more we talk to people around the world and the more we know about their lives, their challenges, and their cultures, the more likely it is that we will find ways to co-exist peacefully. The speakers share music, food, dance, and memories from their countries.
3. What was is like growing up with Cyrus Eaton as your grandfather? What are your memories of Deep Cove in the summertime with your grandfather?
Grampa lived on a farm next to us. We would often have Sunday lunch with him. Every summer starting at two-years-old, I (along with many of the other grandchildren) would travel to Deep Cove, Nova Scotia on Mahone Bay in Blandford. Deep Cove is my favorite place in the world. There was no television or nearby stores. We spent much of our day outside. Grampa led us in swimming off the docks in the cold water. We often took a motorboat and went for picnics on the different islands. We always gathered wood and built a big bonfire. Sometimes, we went deep-sea fishing off the boat. I remember canoeing with Grampa. Sometimes we would go in a rowboat and throw scraps of bread to the gulls. We also canoed on the nearby lakes. We ate all three meals with Grampa in the dining room, and he would often ask us questions or ask us to read poetry. He might ask us to explain whom we thought were the most influential women in the world or the most important world events. One of my favorite parts of the day was walking after dinner with him and his dog Emerson. He often walked over an hour after dinner. The highlight of my year every summer was going to Deep Cove.
4. How would you describe the personality of your grandfather?
Grampa was kind to me. He was a life-long learner who loved reading. He was also curious and wanted to hear what young people had to say and to know what their dreams were. He had a good sense of humor. He loved the outdoors and always had a dog at his side. He cared about the environment. He had a temper. I have read that he was vindictive against him enemies. He strove for world peace. He was a gracious host. He often dressed rather formally in a blue suit, white shirt, and bow tie. He was physically active and walked every day. He ate hearty meals, didn’t drink alcohol or coffee. He was remarkably healthy and lived until he was 95. He rode horses and skied until in his 80s.
Grampa loved the outdoors and being active. He enjoyed telling stories about his children growing up and had a hearty laugh like when he told the story of going on a two-week canoe expedition with his six-year old son (my father) and how his son said a frog bit him when actually he had cut himself with a knife. He also told us about taking the children out on a Snipe Hunt in the dark. Grampa could identify all the trees and when they had been planted or where they had been transplanted from. Trees were his friends. He raised shorthorn cattle in Deep Cove and in Northfield. He knew the names of all the cattle and often walked in the fields to check on them. He also raised a wide variety of ducks and geese on his farms.
He was a life-longer learner and got up early every morning to read poetry, philosophy, history, and the Shakespeare plays. He encouraged children to ask questions, he listened attentively, and then responded with thoughtful answers.
Many people worked for Grampa on his farms and in his business. He always asked about their families and cared about them. Sometimes, he helped their children get college educations.
Grampa always had visitors from around the world. He claims that I helped relationships with the Russians when I was a very little girl. He was entertaining a delegation from Russia, and when I was so friendly and sat on their laps and enjoyed them so much, then they believed Grampa and my parents were really opening their homes and hearts to them. I traveled to Chile with Grampa when I was 19. He was visiting Salvador Allende who was later assassinated. At that point in his life, he was traveling to Vietnam, Chile, Russia, and Eastern European countries to meet with communist leaders and try to bridge differences between communist and democratic countries. He felt this was the best way to forge peaceful relationships.
When I was in college in the late 1960s, he had just come back from Vietnam. He told me that the college students in America needed to protest the Vietnam war and that if we worked together, we could help end this terrible conflict. He wanted me to help organize protests. He traveled to the march in Washington protesting the war.
5. What do you remember about the Cuban Missile Crisis? What was the mood of the Americans at the time of the crisis?
Your class knows much more about the Cuban Missile Crisis than I did when I was 12. As I have grown older, I have been shocked that the US has not been able to build a peaceful relationship with Cuba and its people. I was aware that my grandfather and my father visited Cuba and were on friendly terms with Fidel Castro. My grandfather even gave me when I graduated from high school a briefcase that Castro had given him. Grampa felt it was key to nurture relationships with all the communist countries and to encourage trade and to encourage the exchange of arts and farming and business. In 1959 Grampa gave the premiere of Russia, Nikita Khrushchev, a pair of shorthorn bulls to help improve their stock. In return, Khrushchev gave my grandfather three white stallions and a sleigh and a carriage called a Troyka. I remember riding in the sleigh pulled by these magnificent horses.
Americans feared communism and feared Russians. We even had bomb drills where he hid under our desks as if that would do anything to save people from a nuclear explosion. We lived near Cleveland, Ohio, and Grampa was always very controversial. People were very critical of him and accused him of being a communist. Some Americans were intolerant of Grampa reaching out to Russians and other communists. They were afraid. Some of them called our home and made threat calls. I remember getting two of those threat calls, which really scared me. One time, I simply gave them Grampa’s phone number, and another time I lied and said my father and other men were in the library cleaning their guns. I figured that would make them leave us alone. My father visited Cuba hoping to develop trade relationships with them. I remember he would have to fly there from Canada since no flights went from the US to Cuba.
6. Were Cyrus’ relations with Soviets as concerning to Americans as they were to Mike Wallace?
I haven’t listened to that interview for a long time. But yes Americans were fearful of the Soviets as a threat. My grandfather has a large FBI file because it was assumed that he could be a threat to our country. Grampa was very loyal to the United States and to Canada, which he loved dearly. He believed in democracy but felt there was room in the world for a variety of different governing models. Currently, Vladimir Putin and the Russian aggression in Crimea is in the news and is of great concern around the world. In the same way, Americans were concerned about the spread of communism and the spread of Russian influence around the world. Somehow we forgot how hard the Russians fought in World War II and the huge sacrifices they made and the horrible death toll they endured.
7. What are your memories about the Berlin Wall?
I remember that when the Berlin Wall came down, I was teaching at the University of North Carolina in Asheville. I was so thrilled that I changed my class lesson plans and we read articles about the wall coming down. At the same we read Robert Frost’s poem “The Mending Wall” so we could talk about barriers that people and countries put up to keep each other apart. I remember not being able to understand how it could be allowed to put a wall up in a country or in a city where people including family members were not allowed to cross. I thought when the wall came down that it was a wonderful sign and that relationships would continue to improve between our country and the Soviets/Russians. I was so glad that the Olympics were held in Russia, but now I am sad that the animosity between the Russians and Ukraine is undoing the good will that the Olympics fostered.
8. How did you and the other people in Pugwash feel about the Iron Curtain?
I don’t know how the people of Pugwash felt. I was proud of my grandfather and my father for being so involved in Russia, Germany, and Eastern Europe to develop good relationships because I felt that would promote peace and keep the world healthy and safe for our children.
I was born in 1950, and I grew up in Northfield, Ohio, on a cattle farm next to my grandfather’s cattle farm. I have two older brothers and a younger sister. My oldest brother, Cyrus, was involved with the shorthorn cattle. He was a member of 4-H and helped take care of the cattle, harvest the hay, and show the cattle. John, Elizabeth, and I were more involved with the horses, which we showed in hunting and jumping classes around Ohio and Pennsylvania. What I loved about my childhood was being outside. Like Grampa, all of us were very athletic and I loved playing sports. My mother was a teacher, and my father’s companies were involved with international trade, which I believe is another avenue towards Peace.
Now I live in Bedford, New Hampshire, where I have taught literature, fiction writing, and freshman composition for 21 years. I have published two books. One is a collection of short stories and the other is an adventure story about pirates and ghosts and a fishing village in Nova Scotia. My writing website is cathyeatonfiction.com. I have been married for 36 years to Michael Murphy. I have a son, Colin, who is 31 and an industrial designer, and another son, Devon, who is a sculpture in glass, metal, and wood.
2. What do you remember about Pugwash at the time of the cold war?
I didn’t know much about Pugwash when I was growing up. I remember loving my one visit there when I was ten. It was Canada Day, and I loved seeing the Scottish dances and hearing the bagpipes. We were having a family reunion.
I didn’t return to Pugwash until the last ten years or so, and I have been to Pugwash about fives times in those years. In 2010, I began the oral histories. My goal was to interview people from Pugwash and Nova Scotia who were involved in the Pugwash Peace Conferences from behind the scenes: the cooks, the drivers, the people who billeted conference attendees, the people who take care of Thinkers Lodge, the men and women who saved the Lodge when it caught fire. This oral histories project is a work in progress that you are continuing by doing your interviews. You can check out the website thinkerslodgeoralhistories.com. With Mandy Jamieson, Adele Wick, and Susie Chou, I taped the people I interviewed and we took photographs. Copies of the taped interviews are being kept by the Cumberland Historical Society. Vivian Godfrey would know where they are. I hope very much to include the interviews you do and the reflections you write on our website.
Your teacher, Teresa Kewachuk, was much more aware about the cold war from an early age than I was.
Only in the last 10 to 15 years have I been learning about the role the Pugwash Peace Conferences have played in cutting down the danger of nuclear war and promoting peace. As an English teacher at a community college in New Hampshire, I ask my students to read literature from around the world. We have speakers come from different countries to share their culture, to share their journeys to this country, and to share what it is like to adjust to living in America. This year we had speakers from Iraq, from the Philippines, India, and Morroco. We assisted at a multi-cultural fair at our college and helped plant vegetable seeds for the 126 gardens that refugees from Nepal, Burundi, and West Africa plant and tend at our college. This is my effort to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps. I believe the more we talk to people around the world and the more we know about their lives, their challenges, and their cultures, the more likely it is that we will find ways to co-exist peacefully. The speakers share music, food, dance, and memories from their countries.
3. What was is like growing up with Cyrus Eaton as your grandfather? What are your memories of Deep Cove in the summertime with your grandfather?
Grampa lived on a farm next to us. We would often have Sunday lunch with him. Every summer starting at two-years-old, I (along with many of the other grandchildren) would travel to Deep Cove, Nova Scotia on Mahone Bay in Blandford. Deep Cove is my favorite place in the world. There was no television or nearby stores. We spent much of our day outside. Grampa led us in swimming off the docks in the cold water. We often took a motorboat and went for picnics on the different islands. We always gathered wood and built a big bonfire. Sometimes, we went deep-sea fishing off the boat. I remember canoeing with Grampa. Sometimes we would go in a rowboat and throw scraps of bread to the gulls. We also canoed on the nearby lakes. We ate all three meals with Grampa in the dining room, and he would often ask us questions or ask us to read poetry. He might ask us to explain whom we thought were the most influential women in the world or the most important world events. One of my favorite parts of the day was walking after dinner with him and his dog Emerson. He often walked over an hour after dinner. The highlight of my year every summer was going to Deep Cove.
4. How would you describe the personality of your grandfather?
Grampa was kind to me. He was a life-long learner who loved reading. He was also curious and wanted to hear what young people had to say and to know what their dreams were. He had a good sense of humor. He loved the outdoors and always had a dog at his side. He cared about the environment. He had a temper. I have read that he was vindictive against him enemies. He strove for world peace. He was a gracious host. He often dressed rather formally in a blue suit, white shirt, and bow tie. He was physically active and walked every day. He ate hearty meals, didn’t drink alcohol or coffee. He was remarkably healthy and lived until he was 95. He rode horses and skied until in his 80s.
Grampa loved the outdoors and being active. He enjoyed telling stories about his children growing up and had a hearty laugh like when he told the story of going on a two-week canoe expedition with his six-year old son (my father) and how his son said a frog bit him when actually he had cut himself with a knife. He also told us about taking the children out on a Snipe Hunt in the dark. Grampa could identify all the trees and when they had been planted or where they had been transplanted from. Trees were his friends. He raised shorthorn cattle in Deep Cove and in Northfield. He knew the names of all the cattle and often walked in the fields to check on them. He also raised a wide variety of ducks and geese on his farms.
He was a life-longer learner and got up early every morning to read poetry, philosophy, history, and the Shakespeare plays. He encouraged children to ask questions, he listened attentively, and then responded with thoughtful answers.
Many people worked for Grampa on his farms and in his business. He always asked about their families and cared about them. Sometimes, he helped their children get college educations.
Grampa always had visitors from around the world. He claims that I helped relationships with the Russians when I was a very little girl. He was entertaining a delegation from Russia, and when I was so friendly and sat on their laps and enjoyed them so much, then they believed Grampa and my parents were really opening their homes and hearts to them. I traveled to Chile with Grampa when I was 19. He was visiting Salvador Allende who was later assassinated. At that point in his life, he was traveling to Vietnam, Chile, Russia, and Eastern European countries to meet with communist leaders and try to bridge differences between communist and democratic countries. He felt this was the best way to forge peaceful relationships.
When I was in college in the late 1960s, he had just come back from Vietnam. He told me that the college students in America needed to protest the Vietnam war and that if we worked together, we could help end this terrible conflict. He wanted me to help organize protests. He traveled to the march in Washington protesting the war.
5. What do you remember about the Cuban Missile Crisis? What was the mood of the Americans at the time of the crisis?
Your class knows much more about the Cuban Missile Crisis than I did when I was 12. As I have grown older, I have been shocked that the US has not been able to build a peaceful relationship with Cuba and its people. I was aware that my grandfather and my father visited Cuba and were on friendly terms with Fidel Castro. My grandfather even gave me when I graduated from high school a briefcase that Castro had given him. Grampa felt it was key to nurture relationships with all the communist countries and to encourage trade and to encourage the exchange of arts and farming and business. In 1959 Grampa gave the premiere of Russia, Nikita Khrushchev, a pair of shorthorn bulls to help improve their stock. In return, Khrushchev gave my grandfather three white stallions and a sleigh and a carriage called a Troyka. I remember riding in the sleigh pulled by these magnificent horses.
Americans feared communism and feared Russians. We even had bomb drills where he hid under our desks as if that would do anything to save people from a nuclear explosion. We lived near Cleveland, Ohio, and Grampa was always very controversial. People were very critical of him and accused him of being a communist. Some Americans were intolerant of Grampa reaching out to Russians and other communists. They were afraid. Some of them called our home and made threat calls. I remember getting two of those threat calls, which really scared me. One time, I simply gave them Grampa’s phone number, and another time I lied and said my father and other men were in the library cleaning their guns. I figured that would make them leave us alone. My father visited Cuba hoping to develop trade relationships with them. I remember he would have to fly there from Canada since no flights went from the US to Cuba.
6. Were Cyrus’ relations with Soviets as concerning to Americans as they were to Mike Wallace?
I haven’t listened to that interview for a long time. But yes Americans were fearful of the Soviets as a threat. My grandfather has a large FBI file because it was assumed that he could be a threat to our country. Grampa was very loyal to the United States and to Canada, which he loved dearly. He believed in democracy but felt there was room in the world for a variety of different governing models. Currently, Vladimir Putin and the Russian aggression in Crimea is in the news and is of great concern around the world. In the same way, Americans were concerned about the spread of communism and the spread of Russian influence around the world. Somehow we forgot how hard the Russians fought in World War II and the huge sacrifices they made and the horrible death toll they endured.
7. What are your memories about the Berlin Wall?
I remember that when the Berlin Wall came down, I was teaching at the University of North Carolina in Asheville. I was so thrilled that I changed my class lesson plans and we read articles about the wall coming down. At the same we read Robert Frost’s poem “The Mending Wall” so we could talk about barriers that people and countries put up to keep each other apart. I remember not being able to understand how it could be allowed to put a wall up in a country or in a city where people including family members were not allowed to cross. I thought when the wall came down that it was a wonderful sign and that relationships would continue to improve between our country and the Soviets/Russians. I was so glad that the Olympics were held in Russia, but now I am sad that the animosity between the Russians and Ukraine is undoing the good will that the Olympics fostered.
8. How did you and the other people in Pugwash feel about the Iron Curtain?
I don’t know how the people of Pugwash felt. I was proud of my grandfather and my father for being so involved in Russia, Germany, and Eastern Europe to develop good relationships because I felt that would promote peace and keep the world healthy and safe for our children.