The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
NOVEMBER 25,1936
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NEW YORK—Yesterday I enjoyed that rare thing for me, an evening of leisure. I dined on a little table in front of my fireplace,—read all the things that my brief case contained that I had been waiting to read for days, did some knitting that required a little bit of attention and could not be done automatically with a group of people talking about me,—wrote some letters, paid some bills, and enjoyed the company of a friend.
This morning realization was forced upon me that now and then we have to take certain preventative measures to keep ourselves in good condition, so, most reluctantly, I wended my way to the dentist. He treated me most kindly, however, until I was ready to leave,—then he announced I would have to have at least two more appointments, possibly three, which didn't please me at all as I am beginning to want every minute to spend in Xmas preparations.
My daughter and son-in-law and I had lunch at the Hotel Algonquin and as usual we had so many things to talk about that after I left them I remembered half a dozen questions that I had never even asked. Well we will meet again on Thanksgiving Day at Hyde Park, and I imagine that will be time enough!
Two taxicab men today have told me that they were making a living, doing much better than a year ago, which is always nice to hear. One of them amused me very much;—said he "I think I am doing well when I can support my mother and look after myself,"—so I inquired if he were married, and his response was, "No, I am happy, I live with my mother." Everybody seems to be feeling in a very friendly frame of mind. It maybe the Christmas spirit, but then again it may just be the fact that during the campaign we all of us worked off all of the animosity we had in us and now we can let ourselves go and be really christian.
If anyone in the world is entitled to a bad temper, I think it is a traffic cop on Fifth Avenue, but as I was crossing 44th Street the policeman recognized me and came over to speak to me as we waited for the lights to change. "I know the President well," he said, "you tell him I was asking after his health, he looks better every time I see him." With that the lights changed and he piloted me across the street, saying as he went along, "Don't you be in such a hurry."
E.R.
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Persons
- Boettiger, John, 1900-1950 [ index ]
American psychology professor; grandson of Eleanor Roosevelt
[ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC ] - Roosevelt, Anna, 1906-1975 [ index ]
American writer and newspaper editor; ER's and FDR's daugher
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ] - Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 [ index ]
American politician; 32nd President of the United States
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ]
Geographic
- [ index ] New York (N.Y., United States)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 25,1936
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
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 May 2, 2022.
HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.
TMsd, 24 November 1936, AERP, FDRL