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

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CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, New Brunswick, Monday—I am trying hard to be philosophical and hope that the weather is bringing the Maine farmer much joy but, when you come to a place for a week and there is a dense fog for the first two days, and the third day it deluges with rain, so that you are not even tempted to go out, it is hard to feel kindly toward the weatherman!

Elliott and the little boys left in a downpour Sunday morning and expect to be in Hyde Park by noon today provided the roads are not too bad. Miss Thompson and I stay until Thursday morning, and are still hoping for some nice weather, especially for the drive back as we plan taking the route through the centre part of Maine which I have not done in many a year. Driving down through New Hampshire and Vermont should be beautiful too. I noticed on the way up that some of the maples have already begun to turn a brilliant red.

I have heard fabulous stories about the number of Sunday tourists that now come to this island, but few cars came yesterday, so evidently I was not the only person who decided that such rain was better looked at from within! I lit a fire, pulled up a comfortable chair and settled down to read.

There are many old books in this house, and Miss Thompson took to running through some old novels by George Elliot chuckling with amusement at the changed points of view. I found old volumes of poetry, and was reminded how the small boys looked at the statue of Longfellow in Portland, Maine.

It is a pity we do not read these old American poets more often to our children. They miss a great deal, I think. In one old book I found a sheet of paper on which was written the following verse. I cannot remember who wrote it though it is quite familiar to me and probably will be to some of my older readers:

"One man in a thousand Solomon says, will stick more close than a brother, and it's worthwhile seeking him half your days if you find him before the other. Nine hundred and ninety-nine depend on what the world sees in you, but the thousandth man will stand your friend with the whole round world agin you."

That was the kind of sentimental verse people wrote in what they called "memory books" a hundred years ago, but it is the kind of a friend rarely found in today's busy world and, if found, he or she, should be as dearly cherished as they ever were.

I listened to the radio and heard only sketchy news about Korea, but it seems a little better again. It was reported that Senator Brewster when asked if he thought the atom bomb should be used in Korea answered that the decision should be left to General MacArthur. I hope and pray the bomb will never be used. But under the present circumstances isn't the decision up to the United Nations and not up to any commanding general? I have always hoped that no one nation would ever use the bomb, for it seems to me that it would start such a chain of fear and hate throughout the world that it might well end our civilization.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Campobello Island (N.B., Canada) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 22, 1950

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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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

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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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