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

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NEW YORK—There is a charmingly-told story in Good Housekeeping called "Margaret Truman's Own Story." It is simple and straightforward and Margaret comes out as the very nice child she certainly must have been. No wonder her father and mother adore her.

Some of the stories she tells—and they are told with humor—are most entertaining. What she says of her father and mother is said with the warm devotion of one who was a happy child.

She certainly is one of the few children of her generation who was born at home, not in a hospital. All of my children were born at home, too, and I have the same feeling that it really was a distinction not to arrive in this world in the impersonal confines of a hospital. I hope my children agree!

So much that Margaret tells of the routine of her early life sounds like it belongs to a generation older than hers. That habit of driving out to Sunday dinner with grandmother was a regular one when I was young, too.

Margaret Truman's story of Christmas is particularly charming. And the practice of preserving Christmas tree ornaments is one which I think, too, must belong to a generation ahead of Margaret's.

I added some new decorations from Sweden the year that I went there with my son, Elliott, and his two older children. And two years ago his daughter, Chandler, made me some lovely white-spangled balls to hang on the Christmas tree. But I still preserve the little ceramic figures representing the Holy Family. They always have had their place under the Christmas tree branches.

One can see from Margaret's story how difficult it must have been for her to get accustomed to Washington after the easy life in Independence, Mo. But Margaret Truman is adaptable today, probably because she had to be adaptable in her early youth.

There is, of course, much of history in these memoirs. And as they go on there may be more, but seen from the viewpoint of the daughter of the man who was making it. I think this will be a real addition to her father's memoirs, for here one gets the feeling of the family life and the background of a Senator and, finally, a President.

On Sunday afternoon at the Manhattan Center I attended a meeting of delegates from many organizations belonging to the United Jewish Appeal. This place certainly was filled with people who have many things to do and who have a deep emotional feeling for Israel and its future.

I left for Red Wing, Minn., Monday afternoon, and on Tuesday Senator Estes Kefauver and I both joined Adlai E. Stevenson in touring that state in the primary campaign. But each of us was in a different place!

I am quite sure Mr. Stevenson wishes there were no such things as primary campaigns. I think he would much prefer fighting his battles only against the Republicans. But perhaps it is a good thing to get warmed up for the real fight against those with whom you fundamentally disagree.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1956, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 9, 1956

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.

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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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