The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
SEPTEMBER 7, 1936
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ALBANY, N.Y. Sunday—This morning I had a chat with my husband over the telephone on his return from his trip and he says that they are all very well, only a little sleepy and this they hope to remedy before they leave again on Tuesday!
There are moments when I hate the telephone because it breaks in upon one so frequently when one does not wish to be interrupted but there are other times when it is a joy. One does not have to wait for news one would like to hear, but can actually talk and get all the information which one can never acquire except by the tone of a person's voice.
Saturday Mrs. Scheider and I began an annual vacation period. Some time before the autumn activities really begin, I usually go away for two weeks, generally camp on a camping trip with some friends who are pretty well tried out by this time. As my uncle, Theodore Roosevelt, used to say, there are only certain people who camp out well. Somehow or other that mode of living brings out many things which in the ordinary daily routine may never come out.
This year, however, two of our campers are far away, and one of the others has built a new house, and urged us to come and help with the settling. Knowing that one of the things we like best to do is to find the right furniture and put it in the right place, hang pictures or curtains, and move things all around until we feel that we want to sit down in a room and stay there, our friends are apt to call on us.
I always wish I had had some real training as an interior decorator for I know of nothing which is more fun, but apparently I can make things liveable. A room must come to life and look as though people could lead a normal existence in it. It must be restful above all, a place where any one would like to spend an hour with a book or talking to a friend.
There is something similar, however, between moving into a new house and camping out. At least one has play for one's ingenuity. The first night that Mrs. Scheider and I went to get supper, we discovered that the only cooking utensils that had arrived were our stainless steel frying pan and a griddle! We found that what we supposed was a coffee percolator was only the kind of utensil which keeps coffee warm! It is the first time in our experience that we have made coffee in a frying pan because one of the things you don't forget on a camping trip is the coffee pot, which is used for almost everything!
E.R.
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Persons
- 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, Theodore, 1858-1919 [ index ]
American politician; 26th President of the United States; ER's uncle
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ] - Thompson, Malvina, 1893-1953 [ index ]
ER's secretary
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ]
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, September 7, 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.
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TMsd, 6 September 1936, AERP, FDRL