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

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HYDE PARK—I felt extremely sorry for myself all day yesterday because I could not keep enough handkerchiefs about my person, and my nose got more and more red and sore as the day went on, besides which I was so annoyed with myself for having a head cold in summer. It seemed so very useless!

However, like so many other disagreeable things, as soon as I was busy I forgot all about it and today it is practically gone.

I spent as usual a good part of the day Saturday at my desk but at noon Mrs. Dorothy Roosevelt from Birmingham, Michigan came in with her sister to lunch, and Dr. Mary E. Woolley. Both Dr. Woolley and I are so interested in international affairs we found outselves discussing all kinds of possibilities while we waited for lunch, and it was natural to drift at lunch into talk on the European situation and the anxieties that so many people who have friends and relatives in Spain are now under- going. As one looks back over history it is interesting to speculate on what would have happened if individuals or nations had acted differently in certain crises. I often wonder if these speculations will serve to give any of us more courage in facing new situations!

In the afternoon we all drove down to Secretary and Mrs. Morgenthau's lovely place for their annual clambake. The tables are set under a gorgeous tree and much to our amusement we were told that the tree was protected by lightning rods but the house was not! Their logic however, is excellent for, said Mrs. Morgenthau: "You can rebuild the house, but it would take generations to replace the tree." The scene is always to me very lovely with the hills forming a semicircle around us, the sky colored by the setting sun and as the evening shadows deepen, the evening star comes out first to shine upon us. Down in the paddock three colts with their mothers were duly admired and then we all ate our clams and corn and chicken with great relish and sat out singing until it was absolutely dark before we went into the house to dance. Just before going home, I persuaded the young people to try a Virginia Reel and with a great deal of assistance from my husband, we managed to get through quite creditably, exhausting a good many people, but I think affording everyone a very good time.

My husband and I have been to church this morning and now fifteen members of his family are about to sit down to luncheon. It is wonderful how on the Hudson River, one can collect relatives!

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 10, 1936

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)
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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.

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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 9, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 9 August 1936, AERP, FDRL