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

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WASHINGTON, Monday—I came in town this morning and found a crowd as usual at the taxi stand in the Grand Central Station, but luck was with me. A porter put his bags in a taxi, looked around and said: "Where's my man?", and promptly took them out so my porter shoved mine in and away I went.

At the apartment I repacked, found the fruit cake which Katie, my daughter's colored cook, who was with me for six years before Anna was married, always makes for us at Christmas time. I got it into my bag and am praying it won't be injured for the whole family will be indignant if that cake is not on the table for Christmas.

I am carrying down some cartoons sent for the President and in short there were so many parcels I had to have my maid meet me at the bus with all my luggage.

I went up town to try on two dresses and found my friends, Mrs. William D. Sporberg very busy at Arnold and Constables as this was the day the City Federation of Women's Clubs was getting ten percent there on all sales. The Federation supports a hotel for young girls and young women making moderate salaries and during the depression they carried many a girl who would otherwise have been in desperate straits.

I was afraid of being late for the bus to the airport but we had luck with the traffic or perhaps my taxi men were exceptionally good drivers, anyway I had fifteen minutes to spare. All my taxi men today recognized me and asked after Franklin, junior. It is astounding how many people have had sinus. The world is such a friendly world too!

At the airport I asked about the weather for it began to look cloudy. I was told that all was well though it might be rough.

Mr. and Mrs. Grenville Emmet, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Walker, Mrs. June Hamilton Rhodes and Miss Nancy Cook are all coming to stay today and a few of us are rehearsing a very impromptu stunt which is to be part of the entertainment at the "Gridiron Widow's" party tonight. The husbands will all go to the Gridiron Club and we will have a less formal but I hope equally pleasant a time at the White House.

A book by Pauline Cleaver has just been sent to me. It is called "Make a Job for Yourself." This is an idea which I always feel should be stressed with young people and not with older people who feel that are being shoved aside. Here are examples of how jobs have been created. The book is convincing, practical and very helpful, I think.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Cook, Nancy, 1884-1962 [ index ]
         American suffragist; ER's business venture partner
         [ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC ]
  • Rhodes, June Hamilton [ index ]
         American, manager of Democratic women's activities in Al Smith's 1928 Campaign, ER's assistant in DNC women's activities
  • 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 ]
  • Roosevelt, Franklin D., Jr. (Franklin Delano), 1914-1988 [ index ]
         Son of FDR and ER
         [ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ]
  • Walker, Frank C., 1886-1959 [ index ]
         American politician and lawyer; U.S. Postmaster General (1940-1945); chair of Democratic National Committee (1943-1944)
         [ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | ANB ]
  • Walker, Hallie Boucher, 1892-1969 [ index ]
         Spouse of American government official Frank C. Walker
Geographic
  • Washington (D.C., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 22, 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)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

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.

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 21, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 21 December 1936, AERP, FDRL