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

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WASHINGTON, Friday—The news from Africa is serious. Of course, it is again a question of production. Until we can send enough planes, ships and materials of war to all the fighting fronts, we cannot expect men to stand up against equipment which has been prepared over a long period of time. Discouraging as it is, we must keep right on working until we gain the upper hand and we must not allow ourselves to be slowed up by discouragement. It must simply spur us on to greater effort.

The day in Hyde Park yesterday was great fun. I found the two little girls who are staying with me this summer anxiously waiting to know when they could ride. So, after lunch at the big house we went out to the stable, looked the horses over and decided that the children could take their first lesson. Each of them has ridden a little, so this summer is going to be a chance to learn something new.

We agreed that every day they would ride at 9:00 o'clock and then return and lie in the sun and swim, leaving more sedentary occupations for the afternoon hours. They have agreed that their household chores of bed-making and tidying up their rooms will all be finished by 9:00 o'clock every morning, but I wonder how frequently this program will go through on time.

Often I consider if my responsibility were to follow up children every minute of the day, whether I would succeed as well as those who really do it and seem to accomplish it without any friction.

I unpacked boxes in the big house after lunch, then stopped to see my sister-in-law and returned in time for a swim with the girls, in which Mrs. James Forrestal and her two sons joined us. We had guests for supper and I wandered about and looked at all the flowers. I don't think I have seen the country lovelier.

Some of our climbing rose bushes are already in bloom. The sunset on the water made a rosy pathway. As we ate our supper on the porch, the young moon came to shine upon us. It was so lovely I could hardly bear to come indoors.

We had to rise early this morning, since I have a meeting in Washington this afternoon, and tomorrow will be a special day spent with the people I rarely see nowadays.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 20, 1942

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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