Golly, I love all your stories! Some of your comments remind me of my own love affair with books, & one of them, 'We lived within walking distance of a branch of the NY Public Library', sounds like pure heaven! 'I can still remember how proud I was when I got my own library card when I was 5.' I was older, but I do remember that card! & the big steps up to the big door & the big balistrude (or some such) where I could sit & read until my mother came back to pick me up. the ceiling fans in the cool, hushed lobby area. the smell of the date stamps & the waxed linoleum floors... I read the "Black Stallion" series starting, I think, when I was in 2nd grade. read 'em all. The very first one "The Black Stallion", was an orange hardback book with the silhouette of The Black on the front. I loved that book. About 3 years ago, I bought a bunch of books that a library nearly 60 miles from my hometown was discarding, including an orange hardback copy of "The Black Stallion". When I settled down to re-read it, I found that it had been stamped in to the Ferris library in the 1990s, but it had been stamped in my hometown library in 1957. It was 'my' book. 'Oddly, I haven't done a lot of reading in the last couple of years' I've noticed that I too go through 'spells'; sometimes I read all the time, sometimes I sew all the time, sometimes I have to re-aquaint myself with the concept of 'books' & sometimes I have to make friends again with my sewing machine! Life takes us down different roads sometimes, but our old loves are always there. Sue, try audio books; I listen to them all the time, at home & in the car. I love 'em! 'When I was in first grade, I filled out a little tiny order form for a set of Brittanica encyclopedias and sent it in. A salesman showed up at the front door.' Bingo! I filled out one of those cards in the doctor's office, for a children's set of 'encyclopedias' of Bible stories. The sample book in the doc's office was a bright sort of turquoise marine blue with a technicolor-bright illustration of Jesus & a crowd of children. Out of that one card, I scored the Bible encyclopedia, the Book of Knowledge, & Lands & Peoples, an encyclopedia about different countries around the globe. The Book of Knowledge was my favorite; besides informational articles, it had stories & poems. "The Arab's (Something-Song? Call?) to His Steed" marked the first time I'd ever heard of Arabian horses, & they're still my favorite. My brothers & I were very lively, & the only way my mother could get us inside to take naps was to read to us from the Book of Knowledge! When she broke up housekeeping, my mother gave the Bible stories to her church's children's dept, & I don't know what happened to Lands & Peoples. I still have the Book of Knowledge.

It's a good idea. Do they come with the cell phone number printed on them? Or are you supposed to try and write on that little square? Wouldn't it be better to put it on the child's thigh or back of the neck or somewhere that doesn't get as much action as the inside of the arm? Suzan J

Times for Farmers in the 1940s were tough for the ones who had not recovered from the Great Depression. My Dad was one of those. The only good time we had were the three to four years he spent in the oilfields as replacement worker for draftees. The war ended and Dad was anxious to go back to farming, an occupation he was ill suited for. Times were tough again for our family as out economic condition wilted while others around us were advancing. One year when I was about 10 yr old, my parents decided to gift a new calf to me as a reward for the labor I was preforming on the farm plus keeping my school work on par. The plan was for me to raise this calf to veal stage and then sell it to collect the sale price. All seemed well for a couple of months until one morning during planting season, I came upon my parents having a hushed conversation while glancing at me; I sensed a problem, and then, Mom sheepishly addressed me to explain they did not have enough money to complete corn planting this year. They needed a couple hundred dollars more and asked to have my calf back. They needed to sell it. I felt a loss and disappointment of loosing a promised gift, and yet strangely, I felt that I was doing a duty to contribute to my family for future gains. I manned up and replied, "Yeah, Mom and Dad, take the calf. I understand.", while secretly thinking: Somehow, I knew from day one this was not to be. That's the way it was on the farm in those days.

You might consider the new Samsung Frame Series. Tv looks like a piece of art, when not in use. Select from preloaded art or choose your own. Change when you want. I notice you have large speakers. Can I ask how new/old they are? https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-65-class-led-the-frame-series-2160p-smart-4k-uhd-tv-with-hdr/6264695.p?skuId=6264695&ref=212&loc=1&ref=212&loc=1&ds_rl=1260573&ds_rl=1266837&ds_rl=1266837&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrpLoBRD_ARIsAJd0BIVVEGpbrXbYL4sus5k7QiakcLLfni2RlKk4VXX_QdHkW9_hXBT99pYaAkwxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds