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

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HYDE PARK.—It was announced earlier this week that General Charles de Gaulle will visit the United States. His visit, I imagine, will have both political and economic purposes, though I surmise that France by this time is in a pretty good economic position in spite of the fact that her troubles in Africa were a considerable drain on the public purse.

I doubt that there will be any new or fresh thinking presented to de Gaulle on the North African situation, so I do not see how any great good can come from his visit to the U.S. However, I think we should realize that closer communications lead to more understanding.

In any case, the general will be welcomed here by a host of friends who admire what he is trying to do for his country.

I had the novel experience the other night of seeing a large number of young people dancing during the early hours of the evening. They all, however, were going on to big balls at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel or other places afterward.

The occasion was a small party which Dr. and Mrs. David Gurewitsch and I gave for his daughter, Grania.

I was much interested in one young man who came on crutches. He followed his young lady back and forth between the dance floor and the room in which food was served, and he insisted he could even dance on the crutches. But I didn't actually see that!

Many of the young people came up to me and said that elderly relatives wanted to be remembered to me. That started me digging back many years in my memory.

Two years from now I shall have a similar party for my granddaughter and a young cousin, so this was good experience for the future.

I believe I have decided that parties are more fun in rooms that are just a little crowded. I don't mean that you should not be able to dance or unable to reach the food, but people seem to generate gaiety much easier when they are surrounded by a large number of people.

Though at this party I was afraid we would have too many people on the floor, I found it was just about right. And I must acknowledge that my young debutante, Grania, had more sense about this situation than I did, for at no point did she seem to worry that her quota of guests was steadily mounting.

The Cosmopolitan Club in New York is a pleasant place in which to entertain. It has a real home atmosphere.

Of course, I remember the days when dances were held in private homes. But those days are past, I am told. So it is nice that such a place as the Cosmopolitan Club is available, where there is less a feeling of a hotel and more a feeling of a home than any other public place I have seen.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1958, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 26, 1958

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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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

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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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