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

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Thursday—It is interesting to find all over the country as I journey about how frequently there are ties with the part of the country I know best. For instance, in Shreveport, Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Helm, and their two daughters called on us. Mr. Helm is a nephew of Mrs. James Helm's who is the social secretary at the White House. Mrs. Helm has a farm in Southern Illinois and I did not connect her with Louisiana so it was a pleasant surprise to find some one so full of interest and chat with them even for a few minutes.

In the course of conversation, the Mayor of Shreveport, mentioned having called on Mayor La Guardia in New York and I found he was most appreciative of the warm and helpful welcome which had been accorded him by the Mayor of the largest city in the country.

Judging from the daily press conferences which we hold, the future newspaper correspondents are going to be a very aggressive group, for the youngsters who come to report for high school papers seem to steal most of the time from the regular reporters and one of the boys yesterday if he had not been amusing, might almost have been thought bold. I could imagine that someday some one would have to keep him in check!

I missed seeing our largest army airport but I did see three planes flying in perfect formation as we came in to Shreveport, I hope that there is now sufficient appropriation to give our young army aviators good machines with every modern improvement so that what must be a dangerous branch of the service at best is made as safe as possible.

I do not think I have ever been in a city which gave me a greater sense of being among friendly people than I had in Shreveport, Louisiana. Everyone was so kind and cordial from the girl scouts who brought me a bunch of my yellow roses and the man and his family who had dedicated a picture to my husband's administration, through innumerable other organizations and individuals who sent me flowers and small gifts and the climax in a gift from the City of a very exquisite handmade reproduction of an oil well to be used on a desk. Even the policemen stationed in our room became out intimate friends, and we left at eleven-ten p.m. with great regret.

As I was leaving the Texas State College for Women at Denton on Tuesday last, the dean, who by the way is a man, handed me a little book which he has compiled of humorous stories about American Negroes. It is called: "Chocolate Drops from the South" by E.V.White and I recommend it to any one who wants a laugh a day. Many of us do not appreciate what we owe the Negro race for its good humor and frequently unconscious fun producing ways of saying and doing things. Here in brief is one story I read this morning. A colored couple was married and immediately reports spread far and wide of their unhappiness, the wife, Beatrice, being known as the possessor of a hot temper. Some time after the marriage a lady who knew Beatrice met her in town and remarked: "I hope you and your husband do not quarrel any more." "We sho' don do dat no mo!". "What caused you to stop it?" "He's daid!"

We were rapidly escorted across Fort Worth this morning from one train to another on our way to Oklahoma, and there have been small and friendly crowds at some stations.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Oklahoma City (Okla., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 12, 1937

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
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.

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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 March 11, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 11 March 1937, AERP, FDRL