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

[Original version of the column. Text in red are tagged with <sic> (needs correction); text in purple are tagged with <orig> (needs regularization); and text in blue are tagged names of persons or organizations. View emended version]

      

Hyde Park, Sunday—I must go back to Friday evening and tell you that I attended the Roosevelt Home Club meeting at our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Moses Smith. There must have been close to one hundred people in their living room. Though the evening was cool, such a number of people gathered together on a summer's night is bound to create a certain amount of heat. However, everyone seemed interested and pleased to be there. The homemade cake and lemonade, I am sure, repaid the children present for their patience in listening to speeches.

Yesterday we left home about 10:45 a.m. and motored down the Bronx River Parkway, arguing more or less amicably as to the place where we should turn to find our way to Highbridge, Conn., and thence to Mr. and Mrs. George Bye's place where we were to be part of a distinguished picnic company. We arrived in good time, but were told to return another way, which we did gladly because variety is always pleasant and all this country is lovely. Both ways, however, take exactly the same time to drive.

A number of people were already at the Byes when we arrived and others soon gathered. The day was perfect, cool and sunny, and the table which Mrs. Bye had arranged in the shape of an "E" was set down by what I call a brook, though I was gently rebuked and told it was a river. In any case it makes a very pleasant sound as it runs over the stones and adds great attraction to the picnic center.

Many old friends and some new faces were there. Dr. Hendrik Van Loon showed me his newest publication, the product of some time spent in Sweden last summer. The story of the Swedish writer of song and the illustrations are Dr. Van Loon's, the music is by Miss Grace Castagnetta. She played some of the songs for us after lunch and I think the book is one which no household should lack.

We reached home a little before 6:00 o'clock and so had a swim before dinner. The sun was not warm enough to make us want to lie around for any length of time so I came in and read on my upstairs porch.

Today is cool and lovely and I have had a ride and we are all, I hope, going to swim and play deck tennis before I go up to lunch with my cousin, Miss Laura Delano, at Rhinebeck. Mrs. Warren Robbins of Washington, D. C., is staying with Miss Delano and some of Mrs. Robbin's children will be there also.

I have made a new discovery. Wednesday morning, while I lay idly looking at a cedar tree which grows near my sleeping porch, I noticed a great commotion near the top and saw a bird fly in and out several times. Finally I found a nest with several young birds waiting open-beaked for the food to be dropped in. The same commotion went on this morning, but I think they are nearly ready to fly and I will not be able to watch them for long.

E.R.

(Distributed by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Bye, Arlene Victoria Coyle, 1889-1957 [ index ]
         American wife of literary agent George T. Bye
  • Bye, George T. [ index ]
         American journalist and ER's literary agent
         [ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ]
  • Castagnetta, Grace, 1909-1996 [ index ]
         American pianist, arranger, teacher, writer, composer
         [ LC | VIAF ]
  • Delano, Laura Franklin, 1885-1972 [ index ]
         FDR's cousin; daughter of Warren Delano and Jennie Walters Delano
         [ LC | VIAF ]
  • Robbins, Irene de Bruyn, 1887-1960 [ index ]
         Spouse of Warren Delano Robbins
  • Smith, Hattie Wager, 1876-1959 [ index ]
         American housewife
  • Smith, Moses W., -1959 [ index ]
         American tenant farmer; friend of FDR
         [ LC | VIAF | FAST ]
  • Van Loon, Hendrik Willem, 1882-1944 [ index ]
         American historian
         [ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | ANB ]
Organizations
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, July 17, 1939

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