If You Ask Me
by Eleanor Roosevelt

I got my stockings in a large department store in London.

I could tell you of so many that I can't at the moment decide which one to choose.

I remember a time when a very recalcitrant small boy, refusing to get ready to go to church with me, almost reduced me to tears. Then it suddenly occurred to me how funny it was to see him lying on the stairs and holding on to the bannisters while I tried to get him to stand up and get his clothes, and I burst out laughing. He was so surprised that he got up and got his clothes. I also remember one night when I was a young married woman and people came to dinner whom I did not expect. Their arrival might have been a tragedy, but we made it a joke and everybody ended by having a good time.

I have seen my husband pull people together who were miles apart in their thinking by telling an amusing story, so a sense of humor is useful on many levels of existence.

The Soviet Union was one of the founders of the U.N., so it is not a question of accepting the Soviet Union, since they can veto any move for expulsion. Taking in a new country is another thing, particularly if that country is still not at peace with the U.N. The situation is an entirely different one.

No. I see no connection whatsoever between age and the colors one wears. One wears what is becoming and practical. In summer I wear every possible color, and I think it would be a drab world indeed if all the older people had to wear black and purple.

This country's greatest living novelist, I imagine, is Ernest Hemingway.

Oh, yes. I used to be too early when I was first married and annoy my husband by complaining when he was late. Then, seeing that it irritated him, I studiously became the late one. But some things always had to be on time—for instance, I had to be on time whenever I was doing anything with my children, and when we were in the White House no one was ever allowed to keep the President waiting—so again I learned to be on time, and now I think I am fairly good at keeping on schedule.

No. But I did not mention any of the churches. I think all the churches are playing a very important part against Communism, but it seems to me that labor has the most tangible part because it is the field in which Communists actually try to make their greatest inroads.

As far as distraction goes, I learned how to concentrate many years ago by having to read in a living room where my boisterous children were playing. I have never found that depression took such a hold on me that I was not able to work. In fact, concentration on work and being interested in it is the best antidote I know for depression. I think it requires self-discipline, and that has been more or less forced on me ever since I was a child, so it has become a rather settled habit by now.