The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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NEW YORK—We arrived in New Haven last night and went directly to Dr. Harvey Cushing's house. Much to my regret Mrs. Cushing was away, but Dr. Cushing offered us tea and no one could resist a chance for half an hour's chat with such an enchanting person. It certainly is nice when you can adopt a family-in-law and feel real joy whenever you have a chance to meet.

By a quarter past five my conscience began to prick me for I had not told my hostess what time I would arrive. I had heard from many friends about Mrs. William C. Ladd, but I was hardly prepared for the spontaneous, vivid personality, that sitting in a chair can radiate throughout the entire house. She had infantile paralysis as a girl and can not walk, but that seems to be one of the things which makes her the force she is in the community. She has time to know all sorts of people and nothing is too hard for her to do! We chatted for a few minutes and then dressed, for we were to be the guests of the Central Trades of New Haven at a six-fifteen dinner. Dr. and Mrs. Ladd went down ahead, but Mrs. Charles Morris picked us up and we had a very pleasant time. My neighbor at dinner told me of labor conditions in Connecticut, and finally Mr. Spencer Miller, who had flown all the way from St. Louis, arrived to tell me something of his work, and after dinner we adjourned to Woolsey Hall, where a few years ago I saw my husband received a Yale degree. After the meeting a number of people came up to shake hand with me and it was borne in upon me that had I not appeared, it would have surprised no one, but as one gentleman put it: "I told them if you didn't come, it would be very mean!"

When I meet a group of people like that, I can't help thinking how small the world is. One man told me his sister married a man I know very well in Washington, and a woman said: "I feel I know you very well, because some friends of mine live next door to a friend of yours in Washington."

After a nice family breakfast this morning, we left at eight-twenty on our way to Washington where I hope we will arrive by six- o'clock this evening!

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 30, 1936

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated April 29, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 29 April 1936, AERP, FDRL