My mother, Josephine Lehman Thomas, who spent the last half of her life in Harvey Cedars, was a “government girl” in Washington, D.C., during World War I. She lived as a determinedly modern young woman who relished the wartime excitement of the nation’s capital – with its soldiers, movie stars and international celebrities.

She kept a detailed diary from 1917 until the late ’20s, when she was a researcher and ghostwriter for Lowell Thomas. Her entries offer a lively record of city life at the time.