When Coolidge moved into the White House, he installed a rocking chair on the front porch, in which he enjoyed siting in the early evening and smoking his cigars, usually expensive gifts from his constituents. Alice Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, liked to remark that Coolidge looked as if he had been "weaned on a pickle." When he smiled, someone once said, it was "like ice breaking up in a New England river." But much of his reputation for silence was also a stage-managed display of his famous wit. During the 1924 campaign, for example, reporters asked him for a statement on the campaign, to which he responded, "No." Another asked if he could comment on the world scene. Coolidge answered, "No." Yet another asked: "Any information about Prohibition?'' "No," was the President's answer. As the disappointed reporters turned to leave, Coolidge said with a twinkle in his eye: "Now, remember -- don't quote me."

He had problems socializing in small circles and was a dreadful dinner companion. At White House dinners, usually seated next to women, he said little and always looked bored. Perhaps the most famous story about Coolidge's gloomy behavior concerns the enthusiastic female dinner companion who said to him; "You must talk to me, Mr. Coolidge. I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." Coolidge replied: "You lose." Yet for all of his reported quietness, Coolidge loved company and never dined alone or seldom spent an evening alone with his wife. He and Grace
Coolidge entertained more than any previous family in the White House.

The President's typical day followed a set routine: breakfasting early, working until noon, having lunch followed by a walk and a two or three hour nap, some more business, evening social affairs, a little reading before bed, and then to sleep for at least seven or eight hours. For recreation, he enjoyed the presidential yacht, vacationing in the mountains or at home in Plymouth Notch, horseback riding, golf, and long walks. The stationary mechanical horse that President Coolidge had installed in the White House amused his wife and others who observed him riding the machine. But nothing could take the place of his devotion to cigars, especially the fine Havanas which he almost never shared with guests.

Only one of Coolidge's sons was alive during his presidency; the youngest, Calvin Coolidge Jr., died during the 1924 presidential campaign from an infected toe which he had blistered while playing tennis. His death, at age sixteen, devastated Coolidge. Upon his death, Coolidge said, "the power and the glory of the presidency went with him." The oldest son, John Coolidge, aged seventeen, was a trainee at a citizen's military camp at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, when Coolidge became President. He spent the presidential years as a student at Amherst College, staying away from the Washington limelight as much as possible.