In an old issue of Preservation magazine, an article appeared by a woman who had found a pile of diaries from the late 1800's, written by a farm woman. She was fascinated by these short, not too descriptive entries, like "I done what I could, " and tried to recreate the woman's life. I laughed at the similarities to Gramma Pete's diaries, which often said things like, "Had a good wash," or "Pickled 8 qts of tomatoes today." I too have often thought of recreating the life and times in these diaries, but somehow I thought they were only interesting to me. Maybe I was wrong, maybe a really interesting story could be built around the entries. Maybe in my old age, I'll try it. Now try to contrast that style with the new diary style called bloggin', and it makes you wonder what those people thought about all day. Other than how they washed their clothes and linens by hand, without a washing machine, and dried them on a line outside, no matter what the weather. "A good wash" might take all day. Thank goodness for Maytag.