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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

HYDE PARK, Tuesday—It is very pleasant to return home and have everyone seem pleased to see you. And in the past few days I have visited all the new arrivals on the place since my departure.

First, there are two new babies. One is a little black-haired mite with a bright, alert look in her eyes even though she is barely a month old. I am sure she is going to keep her parents busy keeping up with her. The other little one, barely two weeks old, was still asleep, and she is pink and plump and placid, and her family sits around admiring her.

Then I visited all the newborn calves. Little Guernsey calves are very lovely. Their faces have a certain resemblance to deer and the smaller they are the more attractive they seem. And it was certainly a joy to find we have 11 young heifers coming along and two little bull calves. It probably won't be long before these last two will be ready for the table. I'm glad I won't get to know them too well.

Up on top of the hill there are many little families of pigs. And though I can't be as interested in the chickens, they too, are rather cunning as they emerge from their shells and fluff into little balls.

Farm life is interesting and something goes on at this place all the time, so that being away for three weeks I had to devote a day to catching up with all the various activities.

There are two things I didn't get done while I was in Los Angeles and I am really regretful.

One, I failed to visit an old lady who lived with my grandmother for many years. But it was a long drive out to her place and I didn't seem able to find the time.

For the same reason—lack of time—I did not pay my usual visit to Olvera Street. The lady who is in charge sent me an orchid and that made me feel even more grieved that I could not look into some of the little shops and order some candles or Mexican glass or pottery or shoes. Not even a basket did I bring back with me, and baskets are one of my favorite acquisitions.

Well, I shall have to hope for another trip before too many months go by.

There were 50 young foreign students at Hyde Park on Sunday. They are studying at City College of New York, and I went over to the library to meet them. They asked me many questions about my husband, but they eventually branched out to questions on the Human Rights Commission and whether the United Nations could prevent war and what the U.S. could do for China.

The Human Rights Declaration is easy to talk about, but it is difficult to prophesy how much it really will accomplish in the future. We hope for a great deal, but it is unwise to count your chickens before they are hatched and therefore I will not let myself count on any results until they actually have been attained.

I certainly hope that the nations of the world will remain at peace and there is no question but what the U.N. is helping us. But the world organization cannot be complete until the great nations themselves show greater confidence in each other and a determination to settle their difficulties peacefully.

As to China, perhaps only the Chinese people themselves can solve their problems. If they can start a pattern, then perhaps the other nations of the world can find a way in which to help.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1949, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC., REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 23, 1949

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 June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL