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

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WASHINGTON, Monday—The drive down to Charlottesville, Virginia, yesterday, was very lovely. The trees have begun to put on their brilliant colors down there but, when we stood on the little lawn in front of Franklin and Ethel's house, it felt more like a summer day.

The baby behaved beautifully, no tears and a most friendly spirit. Of course, I know that a healthy baby is usually a placid one, but it certainly is a pleasure to find a welcoming smile even when you know that at the age of twelve weeks no real intention may lie back of it.

We were home in time for 7:30 dinner and, though I was told that I would probably be able to drive the distance in two hours, I found that it took me three hours each way—which leads me to believe that I am a more conservative driver than my children.

Today seems to be a busy day. I did get a very short ride this morning, but having the President join us at breakfast on his return from Hyde Park meant that we talked much too long and therefore everything else was cut short. I was quite conscious of the fact that if the positions had been reversed and I had been my housekeeper this morning, I would have felt distinctly slighted, for I gave her about three minutes.

At 11:00 I held my press conference and found that the baby was of as much interest to the press as Mr. Bigger's report on unemployment.

This report, which baldly states that the increase in the gainful employment of women is out of all proportion to their previous employment according to population, and yet gives no reason why this increase has come about, will, I fear, have a prejudicial effect on the work of women. There are so many angles to this question and so many things to be considered, that the publishing of figures of this kind makes it rather difficult for people to form a fair opinion.

We had a wire this morning from my daughter which said that my mother-in-law is on her way home, in good health and good spirits after a grand visit. She, herself, wrote that they were going up to Vancouver and Victoria; that she had done everything, including inspecting the newspaper office, and omitted only the making of speeches which she did not enjoy. I hope when I am her age, I will be able to be as enthusiastic about life as she is.

A few people came to lunch. Our first tea this afternoon for a large group is for the ladies who are accompanying the delegates to the fourteenth annual meeting of the American Academy of Opthalmology and Otolaryngology.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1938, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 11, 1938

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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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 UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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