The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
JULY 31, 1936
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BIDDEFORD, Maine—Wednesday morning rain greeted us and I was all prepared for a buffet luncheon in the house but by ten thirty it began to clear, and while we had a gray day we were still able to go over to Herring Cove and picnic there. The boys and my husband were really responsible for a much nicer picnic than we would have had on our beach here.
I am inclined to do the easiest thing always, but the boys with the optimism of youth always think it will be easy to do whatever they want to do. My husband is almost as optimistic as they are perhaps because as far as household matters go things are usually made possible by the cheerful willingness of all those who do the real work!
Everything went easily, our food was perfectly good and the sandy beach proved a good baseball field. They ended up their game with the members of the New Brunswick Cabinet playing the American team! The Prime Minister of New Brunswick made as good a hit, and ran as well as any of the boys.
At four-thirty the fog was coming in and my husband stood out on out little porch and greeted whatever Islanders and other visitors who came to see him. The minister has succeeded in getting up for the first time a Boy Scout Troop here and they came in a body looking very proud of their new uniforms. Some twenty people came into tea a little after five, including Mr. and Mrs. George P. Ennis and Mr. and Mrs. Craig who run the art school in Eastport every summer.
By evening the fog was dense and after dinner wit my husband's cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick B. Adams, Franklin, Jr., went over to meet two of his friends who were supposed to come on the evening train. He jauntily said he could make the crossing with his eyes blindfolded but I was very glad to see him when he finally got back, without any friends, however. Franklin, Jr., John and two friends are supposed to sail the Sewanna down, leaving today when my husband and James and Betsy go off to Quebec, so we hope their friends will turn up this morning!
Mrs. Scheider, Miss Cook and I are on our way now on the first day's drive towards Hyde Park. It is a glorious day and we are able to enjoy all the views that we missed on the way up. By tomorrow I suppose we will be wondering if we ever were cool and if we could have wanted a fire every morning.
E.R.
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Persons
- Adams, Ellen Walters Delano, 1884-1976 [ index ]
American socialite; first cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Cook, Nancy, 1884-1962 [ index ]
American suffragist; ER's business venture partner
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC ] - King, William Lyon Mackenzie, 1874-1950 [ index ]
Canadian politician; Prime Minister of Canada from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948
[ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC ] - Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 [ index ]
American politician; 32nd President of the United States
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ] - Roosevelt, Franklin D., Jr. (Franklin Delano), 1914-1988 [ index ]
Son of FDR and ER
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ] - Roosevelt, James, 1907-1991 [ index ]
American businessman, activist, and politician; ER's and FDR's son
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ] - Roosevelt, John A. (John Aspinwall), 1916-1981 [ index ]
American politician; ER's and FDR's youngest son
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ] - Thompson, Malvina, 1893-1953 [ index ]
ER's secretary
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ] - Whitney, Betsey Cushing Roosevelt, 1908-1998 [ index ]
Spouse of James Roosevelt
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ]
Geographic
- [ index ] Biddeford (York County, Maine, United States)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, July 31, 1936
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
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.
XML master last modified on May 2, 2022.
HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.
TMsd, 30 July 1936, AERP, FDRL