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

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CHICAGO, Wednesday—Monday evening in Seattle, I spoke at a meeting sponsored by the Women's War Savings League. In Seattle and throughout the state they are attempting to obtain a very large membership in this league. Every member promises to save all she can and to put in War Savings Bonds and Stamps at least ten percent of the family income.

Mrs. Langlie, the Governor's wife, was present and handed me a membership in the League. I liked Miss Marie Young, who is doing the organization work. I hope they will be very successful in this state, especially since my daughter has taken the honorary chairmanship. I often find, and her experience seems to be similar to mine, that honorary chairmanships are usually honorary only in name. You have to work, and work hard, if the enterprise is one in which you are interested and really want to see succeed.

Yesterday morning, in Seattle, we took my three-year-old grandson, Johnny Boettiger, to nursery school. It was only his second day, but he seemed to have completely settled down. This school is organized on a cooperative basis. The fathers have made most of the equipment and the mothers are taking turns helping the teacher. Johnny seemed quite happy and did not even bother to say goodbye to us.

I left Seattle in the afternoon and was seen off by the entire family. I felt sad, as I always do, to say goodbye, but was very grateful for the happy days we had together. These are times in which one feels one must cherish every opportunity to see those one loves and to be happy with them.

On this trip I have managed, while travelling, to do quite a little reading. A very charming book came to me just before I left, called, "Little Sister Su," a Chinese folk tale translated by Madame Chiang Kai-shek. The illustrations are delightfully done.

Folktales, I suppose, always have a moral. This one ends when the prospective bridegroom is challenged by his lady fair to write the second line of a couplet. The first line she wrote as "closing door, shut out moon from windows." Aided by his father-in-law, the young man finally wrote, "throwing stone, open up sky in waters." Thereby he wins his wife, perhaps because it is better to open up the sky than to shut out the moon.

Perhaps, the underlying moral is that every woman likes to prove that her husband is a little better or cleverer or wiser than she. This lady fair was bound to test her man until she was sure of his ability, even where she thought herself supreme.

There is an interesting diary written by Alice Brady, called "Children Under Fire." In this she recounts her experiences on a number of crossings from England to this country with children who were to find homes here for the duration of the war. Many of them were under the care of the United States Committee for the Care of European Children. Anyone not familiar with the problems and history of this activity will find this book worth reading.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 8, 1942

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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