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

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SEATTLE, Wednesday—Yesterday, with one of Anna's friends, we lunched out on a green lawn overlooking the lake with the mountains in the distance. This little taste of outdoor life is a real joy to me and I must say that, to live in the city and be able to have some of the joys of the country so close at hand, has many advantages.

Another great pleasure is that, as a rule, I find Anna's friends most congenial. With one's family and friends, one sometimes has to like "their friends," because they are "their friends." But, when you can like them for themselves, it adds to the joys of even casual acquaintanceships.

We basked in the sun until 3:30 and then came home to do a little real work on the ever-accumulating mail. Just as I was dictating the column yesterday, there was a strange whizzing sound and the typewriter ceased to work. Miss Thompson looked at me and said: "The spring has gone," and then with a funny little smile, she added: "It is a most considerate typewriter, after six years, to have waited until we were here where we can borrow another one until this is mended. It might so easily have gone back on us on a train or somewhere where we would have been without one." So, if inanimate objects are deserving of gratitude, I think we both feel very grateful to our little portable.

The chef at the Hotel Olympia has sent me one of the most beautiful cakes I have ever seen. The profusion of flowers here must have inspired him, for I have rarely seen such beautiful roses made of sugar, decorating any confection.

Now to turn to more serious things for a minute. I have three letters in my mail, all of them drawing attention to "causes" which are important in different parts of the country. Two of them come from New York City. One of them is a plea for the Greater New York Fund, which comprises New York City's private health and welfare agencies and is their effort to finance themselves. This seems to me most important, for these agencies do much that city, state and federal agencies can never do. I feel, in saying a word about this fund, I am at the same time making a plea for all such funds throughout the nation. Hard as it may be for many people to give at the present time, where we possibly can spare anything we will gain great satisfaction by supporting these private agencies.

Then, for the first time, my attention has been drawn to the work of the New York Adult Education Council, which is becoming a center to which all people who desire to know where they can obtain training in subjects which interest them, can come for advice. At the same time, they are accumulating a vast store of knowledge on occupations and available opportunities for education. This bringing together of opportunities and of people who are searching for them, is certainly a great service in any community. The New York Adult Education Council, with offices at 254 Fourth Ave., New York City, should prove an interesting place for all of us to visit, even if we are not searching for new opportunities ourselves.

I shall have to tell you about my third letter tomorrow.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1939, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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  • Seattle (Wash., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 30, 1939

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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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate 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 UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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