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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

NEW YORK—It was somewhat reassuring to have the Communist Chinese release a Canadian flyer and we can only hope that it is the prelude to a change of policy, that they will soon release all the Americans they now hold. It must have raised hopes in many anxious families to hear that this officer brought news of other Americans besides the eleven we know of that are jailed, and we will hope that before long relief from anxiety may come to all through these men being reunited with their families.

It is interesting to note that the Communist vote went down in West Berlin. This city, so close to Communist-held East Berlin, represents the actual experience of the people and evidently when they are near and can really see how communism works, they don't vote for it.

Sunday night we went to the "Nutcracker" ballet at the City Center and though I suppose this was written primarily for children I don't think a group of ten grownups ever enjoyed anything more.

The music is charming and the ballet could not be more delightful. The whole scene is fairylike; nonsense, if you will, but such charming nonsense. Dr. Eelco van Kleffens and Mr. Dag Hammarskjold were just as appreciative as those of us who were thinking hastily of how many children we wanted to bring if it would only stay on long enough. In fact, my cousin, Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt, remarked on the way home: "I have a feeling that my youngest grandchild would enjoy this as much as my seventeen-year-old grandson." All I can say is, if you haven't seen the "Nutcracker" you can have a delightful evening by attending it.

There was a little item in one of our metropolitan papers on Monday telling of an office building in Grand Junction, Colorado, to be built on a turntable with clockwise machinery which will keep it constantly turning towards the sun. We may think this very unusual but as a matter of fact anyone who has visited Jamnagar, India, where the Jam Sahib of Navnagar (who was once the Prince and now is the governor) rules, will have seen the hospital in which his wife takes such interest and pride. That building is also turned on a turntable and always faces the sun, so we are not the only ones to develop a new mechanical device. It was done in India, which we do not look upon as a very highly developed country mechanically, some years ago.

I like the suggestion for a commemorative session to be held next June in San Francisco to celebrate the signing of the United Nations charter. This would be a meeting where each of the 60 nations send one representative to summarize the work of the Assembly. This meeting might well begin the tenth celebration of the U.N. birthday which will culminate on October 24, 1955.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 8, 1954

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