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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

NEW YORK—Back in New York and such a beautiful day it seemed a shame not to spend it all in the country. A short visit to headquarters where everything seems to be going along as usual.

On the way back to my apartment I stopped in at a little tiny shop on Eleventh Street and found one or two little things for Christmas presents. I reached home just in time to get a telephone message from Washington saying that the President had changed his plans from Thursday night on and what would return to Washington, and what did I wish to do?

Very meekly I remarked that if he wished me to change too, I would do so but otherwise, I would stick to my original plans. I was told that I would be called back when he made up his mind. Now I shall wait anxiously to know what I am going to do from next Thursday to Monday.

Such is the uncertainty of Presidential families, and I do not really blame one of our boys who remarked that it was quite impossible ever to know where his mother was! It is not always her fault, however!

Some friends are coming to tea and to dinner and tonight Mrs. Scheider and I take the midnight train, joining the President in Providence tomorrow morning. In between times this afternoon I hope to get a chance to run up and see my daughter who is home with a cold, but that depends on how much can be put into the space of two hours and a half.

I met a man today who illustrated for me very well the way people feel about this election. He said that at the movies last night when his candidate's picture flashed on the screen, he applauded loudly and next to him sat a lady who did not applaud at all. When her candidate picture appeared, she applauded loudly. He said that as each candidate spoke, it degenerated into a battle between the lady and himself as to which one could make the most noise. They looked daggers at each other but neither of them gave the other any reasons for their feelings, they simply expressed them in noise.

I sometimes get a feeling that much of campaigning is about as reasonable as that. Each side listens to their own candidate, applauding loudly, but the really, calm cool weighing of causes and results is difficult for any one of us to do. Perhaps we do it before we cast our ballot, but I wish we could do it all the way through the campaign and not have quite so much noise and ballyhoo, but a great deal more real thinking about the issues at stake.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 21, 1936

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

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

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

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.

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 October 20, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 20 October 1936, AERP, FDRL