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

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HYDE PARK—Friday after seeing my two grandchildren off on the 3:30 train for Washington I went to the Women's Trade Union League to preside at the party started a number of years ago by my two youngest boys and since they went off to boarding school continued by me with the cooperation of a number of my friends. This year I had to have it a whole week before Christmas because so many of the family will be in Washington next week that I could not get away. We have about thirty-five children at the Women's Trade Union League party and they are always accompanied by one or both parents or by some friend of the family. They are chosen because for the moment some financial difficulty is facing the family.

My friends, Miss Cook and Miss Schneiderman, had the fun this year of actually making most of the preparations as I could not get over to New York in time to do it myself as usual. The children began their party with a half hour of entertainment, then there were presents for all of them and ice cream and cake for young and old. Miss Cook and I made the late afternoon train for Hyde Park and were busy all Saturday morning preparing for our party at the cottage late Saturday afternoon. Our guests come from my mother-in-law's place, my sister-in-law's place and include our near neighbors, some of whom work in our industries. With all the children we usually find ourselves around sixty people, and first of all we sing carols together, then I bring them some special message from my husband and his mother, if she cannot be there, and after the presents we all have ice cream and cake together. The children usually have a desperate time trying to sit on chairs and hold their plates on their laps without upsetting them. I always feel like suggesting that the floor is a very convenient place to sit but I realize that that might not be considered the proper procedure at the party.

Today is being spent quietly and peacefully in the country and it is nice to have a little absolutely quiet before the next few days in Washington which will be very busy and very pleasant.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 21, 1936

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)
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  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
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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 draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated December 20, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 20 December 1936, AERP, FDRL