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

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NEW YORK, Friday—On Wednesday the weather was more than kind. Our plane was on time at Springfield and, to my surprise, I learned that President Eisenhower had landed just a short time before. He was on his way to Hartford to get a degree and the result was that there was considerable excitement around the airport. Later, they told me, he went to Boston, so our paths crossed each other all day though we never met!

The council of the American Association for the United Nations in Springfield is a little different from our usual chapters in that it consists of various organizations which have gotten together to join in working for the U.N. Therefore, the luncheon was given under the auspices of the Kiwanis Club. The gentleman who presided apologized to everyone for packing them in like sardines but explained there was no larger dining room obtainable. In any case a dining room that is crowded always gives one a pleasanter feeling than looking at empty seats, and I think they had a very successful observance of U.N. Week.

I left on the 2 o'clock train for Boston. I was met there by the President of the New England Library Association, accompanied by the past president who lived in Lynn and therefore knew the rather devious paths we had to take to reach Swampscott where their convention was to be closed with my speech, after the evening dinner.

Someday, when all the planned thruways are completed one will travel rapidly in and around Boston; but, at present, the detours are many. However, we reached the Ocean House in Swampscott and I found myself enjoying a most beautiful ocean view from my window while I dressed.

First I met the officials of the Library Association at a reception, then we had a press conference before the dinner at which the new president was introduced. Later, in the Convention Hall, some 1000 people were gathered. It was another most-successful meeting.

Everyone had been so kind all day, and when I made my 11 p.m. plane in Boston I was enchanted to find that I had been on daylight saving time all day in Massachusetts so I reached La Guardia Field at 11:09, New York time.

I have read a novel in the last few days, "Tomorrow the Harvest," by Viola Paradise, that I think some of you might find interesting because of the picture it gives of the early days of our nation in the state of Maine. I found the characters interesting and very well drawn. There were more religious fanatics in those days and young people had troubles just as they have today. All people had to be more neighborly because they did not have as many "things" as we have these days. In emergencies they borrowed from neighbors and helped each other through strange sicknesses which nobody understood.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 23, 1954

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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