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

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HYDE PARK—This has been a nice day from start to finish! It is rather rare that one reaches the end of the day and looks back without feeling that some things went wrong or some people were annoying. Even though we know quite well that we are to blame for whatever went wrong, that doesn't make it any pleasanter.

I began by doing a little shopping and most women like to shop! This time it was not for myself, but since all my friends are now either building or doing over houses or apartments, I find myself occasionally lending a hand. On this particular morning, I was picking out curtain poles and material for a living room in an old farm house. I think we found exactly what we wanted but I shall know tomorrow when we go up and try out our selections.

Then Mrs. Scheider and I started on a drive to New Canaan, Connecticut where we were to have a picnic with Mr. and Mrs. George Bye. The country is beautiful all the way, little hills and lakes, lovely views up and down the valleys. The roads are good and not overcrowded and we reached our destination without making any mistakes, half an hour early for lunch.

It was a delicious lunch, out under the trees by a stream which I would call a brook, but which is named Mill River and runs into Carmel Lake. Mr. Bye had asked me to meet some of his neighbors who write really important columns, among them Mr. Heywood Broun and Mr. Westbrook Pegler and my old friend Mr. Hendrik Willem van Loon turned up also, though he is but a writer of history.

My early arrival made it possible to see something of the charming old house in which an old well is actually enclosed as part of the house itself.

There is nothing in the world pleasanter than listening to really thoughtful men and women talk. They can be humorous or serious, reminiscent or prophetic! It is a joy to have no responsibility yourself and to be entertained without bearing any of the burden of the entertainment yourself.

The time slipped by so quickly that I suddenly found it was four o'clock. Even then I could not tear myself away without walking along the brook to see the cabin in the woods which looks into the tops of the trees. We finally left a little before five to get home just in time for dinner.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 6, 1936

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

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
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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 May 2, 2022.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated August 5, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 5 August 1936, AERP, FDRL