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

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PUGET SOUND, Wash. Thursday—Since reaching Seattle, I have felt in a curious way as though I had returned to one of my homes. I suppose I shall always feel that way about a place in which my daughter and son-in-law live, and Seattle is a friendly town as demoestrated by the welcome which they gave the President in spite of the fact that it was nearly ten o'clock when we reached the city on Tuesday evening.

Anna and John live some distance from the station and as long as we were actually in the city, the people were expressing in no uncertain terms their welcome for the President. I think perhaps also some of them may have felt that he would be pleased to feel that the city in which his daughter was making her home, had grown to have an affection for her and for her husband which made them even more anxious than any other city to welcome her father, as well as the President of the United States.

James and Betsey came out by train and got to Seattle earlier in the day, so they were all settled and had used their time well, for James was already able to tell his father many things on the way out, which even I who had spent several days there might have been somewhat uncertain about! For the first time, I realized that James had inherited some of his father's powers of observation, for he certainly missed nothing along the road between Anna's house and the railroad station and he even knew where the Destroyer would be, which we are now on.

At my husband's request Anna and John kept Wednesday, as far as possible, a peaceful family day. He has so little opportunity to enjoy what any father and grandfather would like to do, that it is nice when he occasionally can do certain things which are usually blotted out by official duties.

In the morning each of us did a certain amount of necessary work, sorting out mail in preparation to getting it answered someday in the future. Here I feel I must tell those who have been kind enough to write me on this trip that if they do not get an immediate answer that they must not be surprised for I fear it will be some days before we even have an opportunity to open and read the many telegrams which have come not only in Seattle but from many other parts of the country.

We lunched and dined alone together and in the afternoon without telling anyone except the secret service, we drove past the grandchildren's school so that my husband might have a picture of where they spend a good many hours. Then past the Post Intelligencer building so that again he might carry away a mental picture of the place where his son and daughter spend many hours of the day and occassionally of the night.

The President had a glimpse of the art museum and the university grounds, both of which he wished to see and then we were back in Anna's house and the party which has come all the way from Washington and Hyde Park with us, came out to have tea.

Amongst the party of course, are many people whom Anna and John would have liked to have for a longer time in their home, but one day is all too short! When we boarded the destroyer this morning on our way to Victoria, the children were wild with excitement, their elders could not help being a little sorry that the peaceful family time was over.

E.R.



About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 1, 1937

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

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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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 September 30, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 30 September 1937, AERP, FDRL