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

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SEATTLE, Thursday—I went to the home show here yesterday afternoon which John's paper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has sponsored in conjunction with the Master Builders of the city in the City Auditorium. It struck me as one of the best I have seen. I have been to them, of course, in many other cities and the same firms buy space and exhibit their wares in many of them.

I should think that it would stimulate building and the renovating of homes, one of the objects in holding these shows. Anything to do with new houses or the renovating of old ones creates employment, so any city should be interested. In addition, these shows are extremely valuable in educating people to building possibilities in materials and to the budgeting and best use of their money.

A model house forms the center of this show and it is easy to see how much interest people have in homes, for there is always a crowd waiting outside to enter this little house. They have had a contest in the schools and high school children have made models and drawn floor plans for their models. The prize winning plans and models are all on exhibition and I was fascinated by the ingenuity and taste shown by these young high school students. They seem to recognize that a house must be practically planned for work, but they do not neglect the outside landscaping or any of the little details which may add to the beauty of their surroundings.

One booth, where they sold gadgets, drew me like a magnet. Like most women, I have a passion for gadgets which can be used in the kitchen and I came away the proud possessor of a little machine which peels everything, potatoes, carrots, celery, far better than any knife I ever wielded. I know if my son-in-law had not been with me, I would have spent much more time looking over all possible gadgets for household use. I rarely have the satisfaction, after I send them home, of using gadgets myself, but I like to know that sometime I may have the opportunity.

Now for that third letter I was telling you about yesterday. It comes from Mrs. Arthur Terry of Short Hills, New Jersey. She has been carrying on for a long time singlehanded, a very unique charity. She asks that people send her their old eyeglasses, particularly the old frames. She sells the old gold and with the money buys the proper glasses for people who are in need. These glasses are those their own physicians or a clinic prescribes for them. This charity has been self-sustaining because people have sent her enough cast-off frames to pay for the necessary glasses for hundreds of poor people who apply to her, not only in her own neighborhood but in other places throughout the country.

Those living at a distance have to send her the prescription for the lenses and size of the frame needed. Of course, she is dependent on the amount of old material sent in. Do, if you happen to have any old frames you no longer use, send them to her.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1939, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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  • Seattle (Wash., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 31, 1939

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.

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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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