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

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WASHINGTON, Sunday—On Friday night I went to the West Potomac Government Housing Project for Civilian Girl Employees. I found that over 500 WAVES are housed there also, and soon there will be over a thousand.

The meeting at which I spoke, was held in the recreation hall and was sponsored by the Current Events Club of Barton Hall. There were so many girls who could not get in, that I visited three of the residence halls just to have a chance to say a few words to the various groups who could not be present at the regular meeting. They have a glee club and a band made up of government girls. When they read off the list of their activities, I decided that the girls are keeping themselves fairly busy outside of their working hours.

This is a good thing to do, for Washington or any other big city, can be a lonely place for young people. That is true especially now when there are so many girls who come from small places where they have practically known everybody in town.

This city offers great opportunities to these girls to go sightseeing. They can become familiar with historic buildings and see wonderful art collections, which they might never otherwise have seen, but everything loses interest if you feel you are alone in the world and nobody cares what you do. So I was happy to see a real spirit of friendly comradeship in every one of the groups I met with Friday night.

Yesterday, after lunch, I went to a Christmas sale in the parish house of St. Thomas' Church. From there I went to a little shop and factory, where a woman has started what she calls "specialities." She wrote me about her Virginia Dare doll and asked if I would come to see it. I went partly because I thought giving a Virginia Dare doll to one of our grandchildren would make the child look up the story of Virginia Dare, who was the first white child born in the "Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

Some years ago I went to a pageant there, which told the story of this lost colony. I thought it was one of the most charming and interesting evenings I had ever spent. I think I shall probably become a permanent customer for Mrs. Walter P. Gray's shop, which has many interesting novelties.

As always happens in Washington, most of my days have been given up to seeing people. You only have to live in the White House to become acquainted with the wide range of interests which occupy your fellow citizens.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1943, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 22, 1943

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 UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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