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

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NEW YORK, Thursday—The train to New York City was on time, and we hurriedly left our bags at the apartment and went to dine with friends before going to Carnegie Hall to see the dance and music festival put on by the African Academy of Arts and Research. The language of the drums, which is the oldest language in the world, is always fascinating to me, and I must say that the rhythm is very hard for anyone to resist. It was a most enjoyable evening, featuring some of the stars best known in this country in night clubs as well as on the stage.

The idea of the festival was interesting. It covered a wide range, from Africa to South America and the Caribbean, and finally ended in our own United States. There will be another performance on the night of April 6, and I hope a great many people will enjoy it as much as I did.

The African Academy of Arts and Research has issued a commemorative booklet which was on sale last evening. It is dedicated "to Felix Sylvestre Eboue and Wendell Lewis Willkie, two great men devoted to the same ideals of one world of freedom and unity." There are many interesting articles written by well-known people, and I am sure that anyone interested in a better understanding among the races of the world will find this issue particularly rewarding.

* * *

We stopped at the railroad station on the way home and I put one of our grandsons on the train on his way back to school.

It is a rainy day, so it is fortunate for me that my appointments are entirely here at the apartment. They will fill my day until evening, when Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kellogg call for Miss Thompson and me to go to the Henry Street Settlement.

The weather news this morning, telling of fruit trees being destroyed in some parts of the country by a sudden drop in temperature, and of a heavy snowstorm blanketing and blocking roads in other parts of the country, should not surprise us—but it does! We are eternally lulled to sleep by our innermost desire. When winter is apparently at an end we long for spring, and the first signs of the fickle lady's appearance make us certain that she is with us permanently! Alas, like most fair ladies, she usually has to be wooed many times before she comes to stay.

* * *

There are some things we can do nothing about, like the weather; yet whatever happens, we have to make the best of it and find a way to compensate for the vagaries of nature. Perhaps this is one of the lessons we could bear in mind as we face the problems of the future. One way or another, we must find a means of solving them. If we can't have good weather and no frosts, then we must take the bad weather. But we must still manage to bring some kind of a crop to fruition or we, the people, will suffer.

E. R.

(COPYRIGHT 1945 BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 6, 1945

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

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
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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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