The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
DECEMBER 31, 1937
[This column has emendations. View original version]
Here I am back in Washington after a rather diversified two days! I filed my column yesterday morning in Fargo, North Dakota, and it was lucky for me in several ways that I was forehanded, for soon after I had finished it, a number of ladies kindly came to visit me at the airport. They were full of kindly suggestions, and wanted to take me to see their city. They offered me all kinds of hospitality, but we were waiting for the airport in Minneapolis to clear sufficiently for landing purposes and I have learned that it is well to stay where you are, for news may come suddenly. Sure enough the pilot came out and announced suddenly: "we take off in five minutes."
I hoped this meant that we would make Chicago by air. We only made Minneapolis, however, and then we were driven over to a train which brought us into Chicago at seven-thirty a.m. It was most comfortable and delightful train, with very excellent food, but as my interest was entirely in reaching home, I didn't relax and enjoy myself in the way that might have been possible under other conditions. I was met in Chicago by Mr. C. R. Smith who said that the "ceiling" had been variable all day, but he hoped that when we reached their airport it would be over five hundred feet so I could make the rest of my journey by air. At eight o'clock it was clearing and I completed my trip by plane.
I greeted my nephew, Henry Roosevelt, and his sister, Eleanor, at eight-thirty breakfast and from then on I have been busy picking up the threads of life here. I find my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law are perfectly well and enjoying themselves, and all the plans for tonight's party are completed. The house is full of young and the atmosphere would be perfect if several people had not already confided in me that Christmas had been a little too much for them! One of the household has gone to bed with intercostal neuralagia and one of our guests is in bed with a cold, and I am just praying for no more casualties. Those who are well seem to be very well, and I am certainly glad to see the boys. My daughter-in-law, Betsey, has done many things for me while I have been gone, and I realize more and more how thankful one should be for people who can carry on some of the activities which you may have to drop yourself. Of course, if it were not for Mrs. Scheider and Mrs. Helm we would all of us be lost most of the time.
I think I know how Ulysses must have felt when he came back from journeys! Everybody has been treating me as though I had been on a real adventuresome trip. As a matter of fact if it were not for the uncertainty of every move nothing could have been more comfortable. Judging by the signs around me I feel that the next few days will be busy but very pleasant.
E.R.
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Persons
- Helm, Edith Benham, 1874-1962 [ index ]
White House social secretary during the FDR and Truman administrations
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ] - Roosevelt, Henry Latrobe, 1910-1985 [ index ]
American insurance agent; son of Asst. Secretary of the Navy Henry Latrobe Roosevelt Sr. - Smith, C. R. (Cyrus Rowlett), 1899-1990 [ index ]
American businessman and civil servant; CEO of American Airlines from 1934 to 1968 and 1973 to 1974; Secretary of Commerce from 1968 to 1969
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ] - Thompson, Malvina, 1893-1953 [ index ]
ER's secretary
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ] - Wadsworth, Eleanor Katherine Roosevelt, 1915–1995 [ index ]
American; niece to ER - Whitney, Betsey Cushing Roosevelt, 1908-1998 [ index ]
Spouse of James Roosevelt
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ]
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 31, 1937
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.
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TMsd, 30 December 1937, AERP, FDRL