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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

NEW YORK, Friday—I managed to do a few errands yesterday morning before repeating the 10:00 o'clock broadcast at 1:15 o'clock. Miss Thompson, Mrs. Ernest Lindley and I had a pleasant, if somewhat hurried, lunch at the French Restaurant at 49th Street, where at 2:00 o'clock, General Drum and Miss Fannie Hurst called for me. We ferried over to Governors Island together on the special barge and found Mrs. Drum waiting on the other side. She has been laid up for a long time with an ankle broken in three places, but at last she is able to get about again.

The little booklet, published by the Governors Island Club, was given me. It tells the history of the island and is very interesting. The old forts are purely ornamental today, but the building which McKim, Meade and White designed, is not only dignified and charming, but filled with activity.

I paid a short visit to the hospital. While I doubt if it is ever pleasant to be ill, still I think these officers and men are in very pleasant quarters.

I never saw anything more efficient and orderly than the cafeteria, the kitchen and the supply rooms. I wish my own house could always be so spic and span.

The sergeant in charge seemed to me remarkably able and efficient. When he showed me the field kitchens, each one of which can produce a meal for fifty men, I was lost in admiration. He told me it takes two hours to prepare a meal, though he has produced a satisfactory dinner in 45 minutes, and it can be done with the trucks in motion.

I thought of an old army kitchen, my one real contact with army feeding. The Red Cross used it in the last war to make coffee for trainloads of troops coming through the Washington railroad yards. I still remember our difficulty in keeping it clean. It did not remotely resemble this modern and efficient equipment.

Finally, we watched a parade. They told me most of the men were selectees under young reserve officers. I can only say they did as well as any troops I have ever seen.

After tea with General and Mrs. Drum, I came home to keep an appointment with Dr. John Eliot and then had dinner with Miss Esther Lape. I spent the evening catching up on the mail.

This morning, at Mayor La Guardia's request, I looked at some designs for uniforms, which volunteers may wear in the future. I confess to a little confusion in thinking about uniforms before being entirely certain what work is to be done in them, but I suppose simple working clothes can fit all types of work.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1941, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 14, 1941

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)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

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 June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL