Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

And I said, “ Ruthie, accept this call!” And she said, “OK.” I said, “Put me through to Dan,”
who was also being silly and saying, “Well, I don’t know. You’re calling collect.” And I said,
“Dan, how’s Danny!” Well by that time he was out of the hospital and home. And he was
fine. It was some strange virus or something. And I was just trembling and in tears. But
everything was fine, I found out.
Hughes: Three weeks on the road and you pick up The P-I and read this shocker.
Evans: Dan didn’t know why I was calling, or anything about this article in the paper. So
I felt better after that call. Then they took me back out to the plane and we took off and
came to Seattle.
Hughes: It was pretty uneventful after that.
Evans: (Laughing) Yes, it sure was. That was my three-week adventure. That was my foray
into diplomacy.
Hughes: Have you been to Russia?
Evans: Yes.
Hughes: I haven’t been to Russia but I’ve been on delegations welcoming Russian ships.
The obligatory thing is to drink toasts, and if you try to keep pace with them they’ll drink
you right under the table.
Evans: Well, there’s a secret I learned on one trip. When we first arrived, it was lunch, and
there was this round of the vodka in little shot glasses. You don’t want to drink it down
because when it’s empty they will replenish your supply. It didn’t take us long to realize
that when they come around you put your hand over the glass because they’re actually
pouring water into the hosts’ glasses and vodka into your glasses.
Hughes: Did you ever get served anything that was just incredibly ghastly that your hosts
expected you to eat – watching closely to see how you handled yourselves?
Evans: I remember it was that first trip to Japan. It was the Bank of Tokyo dinner, and
they served many courses. One was a fish. A whole fish. A little fish, like a smelt, but it was
bigger than a smelt because I love smelts. Mrs. Kanai, bless her heart, was sitting right
here on my right. They were all eating the whole fish. And I said, “Mrs. Kanai, I cannot
eat the head.” And she said, “I perfectly understand. It’s like when you serve whole
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