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

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NEW YORK—I think my family and household are the best natured that I know anywhere, for after telephoning home and saying I would be back by eight o'clock last evening, I had a punctured tire and it rained, all of which delayed me so that I did not get home until eight-thirty. Instead of finding dinner over, I found that they had all waited for me and were wondering what had happened to me. Perhaps it is a good thing to do the unexpected now and then!

I had an amusing time getting my column filed yesterday afternoon. I had to write it while I was still at the State School, so Dr. Williams lent me his stenographer. Then we started to drive back to Cornwall and I realized that somewhere along the way I must find a telegraph office. We drove into Monroe, New York, which looked to me like a fairly good sized place, and on a corner we inquired about the location of the telegraph office. We were directed up Main Street to the Telephone Building. When we reached it, I got out and found the front door locked. For once I was too easily discouraged. It never occurred to me to look for any other door, so I wasted everybody's time by journeying to the railroad station which took us back through town and down two different streets before we found the right entrance. All this only to be told to go back to the original building and that the office was never closed! This time I went deciding to climb through an open window if necessary, but to find the office! I did find a side door open, and a very surprised looking lady inside. When I demanded the telegraph office, rather hesitatingly she showed me down a passage and through another door. There I found one lone woman and when I handed her the column, she asked: "Would you tell me a little more about it? We have just opened this office." So as best I could, I explained what press rates collect meant and very insistently said that a dead line meant a certain hour at which you had to get your material in, and that it must be sent off at once. I saw her sit down preparatory to sending it off and left saying a little prayer that all might go well.

Mrs. Scheider and I came to New York on the early morning train and arrived at the State Committee Headquarters in the Biltmore Hotel at the same time as the office force. Only Miss Cook was at her desk and most of us think that she not only eats on her desk, but probably sleeps under it so she will be there before and after everybody else!

E.R.


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 12, 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)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • 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 11, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 11 August 1936, AERP, FDRL