Notes &
I think I have almost learned to swear – which I hear is one of the accomplishments of golf. The prognosticators say that golf is a fad, and will soon pass. So I cannot say if the summer of 1902 will be remembered as the year my family were taken with the golf fever, or the year they had it
My mother found an archived transcript of a letter written in 1902 by my great great great grandmother Julia Spencer Whittemore, from which I’ve pulled the following on her description of taking up the game of golf.
“Pardon me if I add a personal note which may interest some of you. I have had an opportunity this summer of acquiring a new language. We have all known that to use table talk is considered one of the best means of learning any language. And this has been my method of learning golf – used compulsory. (undeciph) I know that a ball is not sliced like an apple or potato, but after being sliced comes back whole. I know what is a dead ball, and how a ball is pulled or (undeciph). I knew before all about a white lie, a black lie, and had seen a brazen lie; but now I have learning a brassy lie, a hanging lie, and a poor lie. I know that putting a ball is not the same as putting it though I see no reason for it. Toward the end of a meal, when I have been dumbly absorbing all this knowledge, I think I have almost learned to swear – which I hear is one of the accomplishments of golf. The prognosticators say that golf is a fad, and will soon pass. So I cannot say if the summer of 1902 will be remembered as the year my family were taken with the golf fever, or the year they had it.” - Julia Spencer Whittemore, 1902
*emphasis mine
