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Selected Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt

Originally printed in the Woman's Home Companion 60 (August 1933): 4.

1. The invitation which forms the title of this page comes from my heart, in the hope that we can establish here a clearing house, a discussion room, for the millions of men, women and young people who read the Companion every month.

2. For years I have been receiving letters from all sorts of persons living in every part of our country. Always I have wished that I could reach these correspondents and many more with messages which perhaps might help them, their families, their neighbors and friends to solve the problems which are forever rising in our personal, family and community lives, not only with my ideas but with the ideas of others.

3. And now I have a department in this magazine which I can use in this way. The editor of the Woman's Home Companion has given me this page to do with exactly as I will; but you must help me. I want you to tell me about the particular problems which puzzle or sadden you, but I also want you to write me about what has brought joy into your life, and how you are adjusting yourself to the new conditions in this amazing changing world.

4. I want you to write to me freely. Your confidence will not be betrayed. Your name will not be printed unless you give permission. Do not hesitate to write to me even if your views clash with what you believe to be my views.

5. We are passing through a time which perhaps presents to us more serious difficulties than the days immediately after the war, but my own experience has been that all times have their own problems. Times of great material prosperity bring their own spiritual problems, for our characters are apt to suffer more in such periods than in times when the narrowed circumstances of life bring out our sturdier qualities; so whatever happens to us in our lives, we find questions constantly recurring that we would gladly discuss with some friend. Yet it is hard to find just the friend we should like to talk to. Often it is easier to write to someone whom we do not expect ever to see. We can say things which we cannot say to the average individual we meet in our daily lives.

6. To illustrate the changing nature of our problems it is interesting to remember that less than twenty years ago the outstanding problem of the American homemaker was food conservation, or how to supply proper nourishment for her family with one hand while helping to feed an army with the other! Ten years ago the same mothers were facing the problem of the postwar extravagance and recklessness; how to control the luxurious tastes of their children, the craving for gayety, pleasure, speed which always follows a great war. Today in millions of homes parents are wrestling with the problem of providing the necessities of life for their children and honest work for the boys and girls who are leaving school.

7. At almost stated intervals the pendulum swings, and so far the American people have each time solved their problems. And solve them we will again, but not without earnest consultation and reasoning together. Which is exactly where this page enters the national picture.

8. Let us first consider one or two typical problems. You all know that in May the entire nation celebrated Child Health Week. I was among those who spoke on the basic foundations on which the health of a child is built. A few days after I gave this radio talk I received a letter from a mother who wanted to know how she could supply nourishing food and proper clothing for her three children when her husband was earning exactly fifty-four dollars a month!

9. Again, a couple who had read something I had said about modern methods in education wrote asking what trades or professions would offer the best opportunities for young people in the next few years.

10. You will note that both of these earnest letters came from parents. This is encouraging, for there never was a time when the sympathy and tolerance of older people were more needed to help the younger people adjust themselves to a very difficult world.

11. In the hands of the young people lies the future of this country, perhaps the future of the world and our civilization. They need what help they can get from the older generation and yet it must be sympathetically given with a knowledge that in the last analysis the young people themselves must make their own decisions.

12. You will be reading this page in midsummer when discussion of the summer vacation is paramount in many American homes. I am an enthusiastic believer in vacations. They are, in my opinion, an investment paying high dividends in mental and physical health.

13. So this month I am going to ask you a question. We all know that we have less money to spend on recreation than we have had for a great many years. How can we make that money cover the needs of a real holiday? I should like to have those of you who have taken holidays inexpensively tell me what you have done.

14. Perhaps you will be interested in a holiday I myself enjoyed many years ago.

15. We took four young boys to whom we wanted to show some points of historical interest, at the same time giving them a thoroughly healthful trip. We decided to take our car and strap on the side of it one big tent and one pup tent. The four boys slept in sleeping bags with their heads under the pup tent if it rained. We ran about one hundred and fifty miles a day. We would buy our supplies in some village through which we passed in the late afternoon. Then we would make camp near some river or brook, usually finding a hospitable farmer who would supply us with milk, butter and eggs.

16. We had to cook our supper and make our camp before it was dark after which we would have a swim and sit around, talk or read and go to bed in the twilight. We were up again at dawn and during the day we would stop and see whatever historical things might be of interest on the way. Our route ran north through New York State so that we saw Ausable Chasm, the shores of Lake Champlain. We stopped a day in Montreal and two days in Quebec; then we drove down through the White Mountains where we camped two days in order to climb some of them on burros, to the great joy of the children; then east through the beautiful central part of Maine with its lakes and woods, down to the sea to Castine, and home by the road along the shore.

17. Our actual camping trip lasted ten days and cost us only the wear and tear on the car, the gasoline and oil, and our simple food, with a very little extra for admissions, for donkeys to climb the mountains and the cog railway 'up Mt. Washington, but these of course could have been eliminated. This was one of the least expensive holidays I have ever taken and it could easily be duplicated with profit and health for all concerned.

18. A less elaborate trip may prove quite as satisfying. A week or two in a good camp has its advantages if swimming, fishing, and hiking are available, and even weekend picnicking will break the monotony of summer in city or small town.

19. If you have taken such a trip with family or friends, won't you tell me about your experiences, giving sufficient detail to serve those who wish to duplicate your vacation. Your plan may be just the one I should be glad to pass on to other Companion readers.

20. Please do not imagine that I am planning to give you advice that will eventually solve all your problems. We all know that no human being is infallible, and on this page I am not setting myself up as an oracle. But it may be that in the varied life I have had there have been certain experiences which other people will find useful, and it may be that out of the letters which come to me I shall learn of experiences which will prove helpful to others.

21. And so I close my first page to and for you, as I opened it, with a cordial invitation—I want you to write to me.