Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 12 · column 3 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
her standing by the President during the reception. Then, on to the Salvation Army, then the municipal tree-lighting service. Then, back to the White House, where, at 5 o’clock, the family would receive the whole White House staff, with their families, in the East Room.
The children ate supper while the big children decorated the family tree on the second floor. Franklin started to read “A Christmas Carol,” just as he had at Hyde Park. Eleanor filled the stockings later, attended church services and went to bed quite late, for there were many children and each stocking had to be replaced in exactly the right place.
Breakfast was served in the West Hall for the family. For the President, breakfast was on a tray while he did some work.
Eleanor remembered making the rounds of Christmas trees in “the Alleys.”
“The Alleys were some of the slums of Washington, and a group would set up sad little trees, around which children would gather for presents. It would be arranged that I would drop in on each little group as they collected. From these gatherings, I always went back to the White House with an added awareness of the inequality of our earthly blessings. ”
As with everything he did, Franklin Roosevelt had his own way of celebrating Christmas:
“Franklin would get so interested in everyone else’s presents that it might be four or five days after Christmas before we finally enticed him to open all his own gifts. Being an orderly person, I would always get mine opened before I went to bed, so I could prepare the list for thanking as soon as possible and get everything put away.
“But my husband was never troubled by any considerations of this kind and would often read a book he received all the way through before he opened the next present! Nice men, I think, often have the traits of little boys all their lives, and this trait of eryoying presents I always noticed in my husband. You could not hurry him when he had a gift to enjoy.”
92.1%