The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
NOVEMBER 27, 1942
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WASHINGTON, Thursday—I spent Tuesday afternoon and eveningwith the faculty and students at the Connecticut College for Women. They were a most interesting group, full of questions and keen to know all they could of what was happening in Great Britain. One girl asked me something I imagine comes up quite often, "Do the students of Great Britain accept the added physical education, which is now being given us, as a horrid necessity, or do they really feel it is important and enter into it with zest?"
I assured her that it was quite well understood by students over there that the best possible physical condition was necessary, both for men and women. That they needed to know more about nutrition and far more about mental balance and the value of a trained and controlled mind as part of their entire physical well-being. There were many other very stimulating questions and I enjoyed my time with this group of young women very much.
Then, in New London, Conn., I visited the Catholic USO, which had been started as a Catholic Service Men's Club before the USO was organized. It was one of the biggest places I have been in. The lounge downstairs was full of men belonging to different services, talking, reading and playing the piano.
There was a mother's room, where all the girls leave their wraps. A dance was going on upstairs, there was bowling in the basement and a really homelike kitchen, with a nice round table and three motherly women preparing coffee and cake for everyone. On the upper floor, there are sleeping accomodations for 50 boys, and they are nearly always filled.
We proceeded to another USO building, run by the Salvation Army in a government built building. Here the major part of the attendance, which was not so very large, was watching a play given by local talent and which I thought was extremely well done. They have no sleeping accomodations —just a lounge, library and a big recreation room with a snack bar. Then we went to a bond rally, which I thought was highly successful. I took the train back to Washington at 11:30 p.m.
Wednesday was a fairly busy day here. I broadcast on the Farm and Home Hour program and made four recordings beforehand. I had several appointments in the morning and various others from 4:30 on in the afternoon.
On Thanksgiving Day we attended a service, at which there were a great many thankful hearts, and hopeful ones as well. A few friends joined us for luncheon at 1:00 o'clock.
E.R.
(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 27, 1942
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.
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