Nader's 'Traditions' A Tribute to Family And Community

WINSTED — Fresh off the first leg of a national tour to promote his latest book, "The Seventeen Traditions," Laurel City native son, consumer activist and politician Ralph Nader sounded pleased and relaxed Tuesday by phone from his Washington office, where he contemplated the success of this rare biographical peek into his childhood and family in Winsted.

"All over the country people are saying they’ve got to go see Winsted," Nader said, recalling coast-to-coast appearances that have included major newspapers, magazines and television shows. "The Mad River is rapidly approaching geographical fame."

For those who have read "The Seventeen Traditions," it should come as no surprise that Nader’s home town has popped up on the national radar again. Winsted has been the subject of interviews galore, including appearances on the Today Show, CNN and a lively segment on Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

"The book is all about Winsted and growing up in Winsted," Nader said. "The streams, the meadows, the brooks, the lakes. Everything was within 25 minutes walking — stores, schools, libraries, the hospital, Town Hall. When you actually think of remembering your childhood, the first impression is you can’t remember that much, but the more you think about it, it fills in rapidly. Your memory is linked. If you think of one trip to the lake, you think of something else that might have happened in association with that."

A half-inch-thick, hardcover handbook with a nifty jacket reminiscent of 1950s kitchen wallpaper, "The Seventeen Traditions" features illustrations of Highland Lake, the Soldiers’ Monument, the old Central School (now Pearson Middle School) and the Beardsley & Memorial Library. The traditions themselves, with a chapter devoted to each, are derived from lessons learned as a youth from strict but loving parents who taught the importance of simple enjoyments (tradition 9), sibling equality (tradition 6) and the virtues of solitude (tradition 16).

Perhaps most poignant of those traditions is the sense of solitude, which Nader developed at a young age. He introduces the book with the pubescent memory of another boy insulting a girl for her appearance — an early experience with physical prejudice — and never really resolves the conflict, only to pass on a lesson from his mother that prejudice is wrong.

Throughout the 31-page introduction, entitled "Landscape of My Boyhood," Nader spends little time talking about friends or social life, while devoting significant passages to places where he engaged in the practice of Emerson-tinged solitude. Emphasis is given to the fields, the garden, the maple tree and the rock — aka his "friends."

"Not every friend I made in childhood could be found in my yard," Nader writes. "One unlikely companion was just a few minutes’ walk away — a boulder I came to think of as ‘the rock.’ ... More times than I can remember, my mother would give me a sandwich or an apple and off I would scamper to eat it on my rock."

Asked if the early references to social discontent and introversion were a sign of general disdain for society, Nader said they were not. "I wouldn’t say that," he said. "The solitude bit was about letting us dream and imagine and putter around. Looking back on it, I think it was very important for me.

"I was the only boy in high school who was in the typing class," Nader continued. "You’ve got to learn how to type, but it was a lonely endeavor. It was considered a sissy class because it was all girls, but I adapted to it very well because I was used to being by myself. I think most kids, by today’s standards, spent a lot of time by themselves."

"The Seventeen Traditions" contains little of the classic icon smashing Nader reserves for books about politics and corporate America. In that way, the book is unusually warm and personal. In a tribute to his father, Nathra, Nader recalls the Great Flood of 1955 and the effect the Mad River’s fury had on the family’s downtown business. The Highland Arms Restaurant was devastated by the flood for a second time, as it had been previously routed by the flood of 1938. Nader’s father, at 62, surveyed the damage after the flood and said, "Well, we’d better get to work. There is much cleanup and rebuilding to do. We can use the opportunity to beautify Main Street."

The Highland Arms was a place for the young Ralph Nader to learn the traditions of work, business and civic duty from his father, and to learn about community dialogue in a restaurant where a nickel bought you "a cup of coffee and 10 minutes of political talk."

While the positive outlook is filled with love and inspiration, some of Nader’s traditions have rigid, conservative undertones. There are no traditions of love or friendship, for instance, but there are traditions of discipline, work, scarcity and listening. Nader recalls his mother keeping "a short list of children who were absolutely off-limits" and that he was forced to wear shorts to school when all the other boys were wearing long pants.

Nader nonethless shows a deep-rooted respect and admiration for both his mother and father, who taught him lasting lessons on living a healthy, productive and responsible life. "Mother and Dad were very diverse and deep people," he said.

In his final chapter, "The Tradition of Civics," Nader recalls his father as a hard-working restaurant owner who was notorious for speaking his mind, especially to his "special target," politicians.

"Dad always lay in wait down by the end of the counter, near the large coffee urns," Nader writes. "And when his and the politician’s hands clasped, he wouldn’t let go until he had his say and got some response."

Lest anyone think the young Ralph Nader was a total outcast, he did have his share of recreational fun with friends. "I was in the dramatic clubs and we used to have pretty rough tackle football games up at the monument," he recalled Tuesday. "They didn’t have the well up there — it was just a field — and sometimes you caught the touchdown and landed on the road. It was not exactly a reward for a valiant catch."

Whether it was playing baseball in the park or climbing a beloved maple tree in solitude, Nader seemed to ultimately draw a lesson from every experience, and that may be the most important tradition of all — to appreciate life and be willing to learn from it.