19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, May 17, 1914: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Stopped with a friend a couple of minutes.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sounds like a wonderful, fun, relaxing Sunday afternoon.
Hmm. . . What does stopped with a friend mean? . . . Did Grandma go into a friend’s home in McEwensville after Sunday School to see something? . . . sit on the grass and talk? . . . stop to pick wildflowers?
A Hundred Years Ago 
More intriguing, which friend?
I wondered the same thing. . . I assume the friend was female, but couldn’t be sure.
I would sure like to pry some details out of that young woman! She writes as if she has to pay for each word!!
So would I. 🙂
I think it means they stopped and chatted for a few moments… 🙂
Diana xo
That makes sense. You’re probably right.
The trouble with a diary is it’s written for the writer, so there is no need to describe details since they are already there in the diarists head.
I like the way you succinctly describe some of the challenges of working with a diary.
And I like the creative way you deal with it.
I am always thinking Helena must see her future husband occasionally. I seem to remember they graduated together. Jane
Yes, they graduated together in Spring, 1913– and the community was small–so I assume that she saw him from time to time. But she was 3 1/2 years older than him. I think that he skipped several grades. At this point in time, he would have been 15 1/2 years old and she was 19. They didn’t get married until she was 26. So my gut feeling is that in 1914 that he still wasn’t on her radar screen.
Sounds right to me …
I have to say, my adult diary is pretty detailed. The one I kept as a kid and teenager, nearly in code. If a future grandchild ever tried to decode it, they’d have their hands full. What makes us so suspicious as girls?
Your teen diary sounds like it could be a fun puzzle for a future grandchild to decipher. 🙂
Even if Helena only Lingered a minute to talk with a friend, that must have made the day special.
Yes, it probably made the day special.
This is as much fun as reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. You can actually make up your own stories to go with the daily entries in the diary. I wish one of my ancestors had kept a diary that I could read today. I kept one for a while, then burned it the first time my heart was broken. And the second. And so on, and on.
I am very fortunate to have a copy of my grandmother’s diary. I like how I can use the diary entries as a starting point (or writing prompt), I then have a lot fun doing the research and writing. It’s always wonderful to here when someone enjoys reading the posts.
Stopped with a friend is so cryptic. I wonder if it was a boy? Or a girlfriend visit about a boy? 🙂