Lennie Parties With His Friends

Lennie writes today:

Thursday, January 13, 1898
Had a party to Cheavers
Staid at Fred Poff.
John Dillon in ???

I think I spelled Cheavers correctly...Lennie's writing was tiny! And those tiny penciled notations were somewhat smudged.

Afterward, Lennie "staid" overnight at Fred Poff's house.

I haven't a clue as to where John Dillon was. Was he "in town"? Was he "in trouble"? We simply do not know. At first I thought Lennie might be referring to that infamous bank robber but I was wrong. That fellow's name was John Herbert Dillinger, not Dillon. And he would not be born yet for another five years. So, no, this was not the bank robber.

The word for today is "staid". Yes, Lennie used this word incorrectly. But it IS a word.

Staid - Adjective
...Marked by settled sedateness and often prim self-restraint.

I don't think anyone could ever call Lennie prim or sedate. Nobody who is out sliding down the hill nearly every day of the week could be called "staid".

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Lennie Continues In His Lack of Verbosity

Sunday, January 9, 1898
??? meeting. (Indecipherable. Again!)
JOGT
Went to church together.

Lennie speaks of going to JOGT several times in his diary. But what is JOGT? Google is of no help on this one. I'm certain it has something to do with the Odd Fellows Lodge but I don't know what the letters stand for. Can anyone help me out on this one?

And, Lennie, with whom did you go to church "together"? JOGT members? Family? Boys and girls? Lennie, I wish you would have been more verbose. And where, Lennie? Presbyterian? Christian? Methodist? Swedish Lutheran? Swede Mission? Which church?

While Lennie was dedicated to writing something every day of Year 1898, he certainly was not verbose.

I think I will call "verbose" the Word of the Day.
Verbose. Meaning "containing more words than necessary".
Lennie was not verbose.

Family members say Lennie was very talkative. But he wasn't much of a writer. Yah, you've already figured that out and here it is, barely a week into the new year.
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