You know, we are all the products of everything that has gone on before us. We are all accidents of the momentary interminglings of all of our ancestors over thousands of years. We cannot change the past. Things are what they are. Or, were. Mysteries, even unpunished murders from a century ago, are over and done for. And, believe it or not, I really am interested in the past! I love history, family history and lore. But, we need to remember that we are looking at the past through our 21st Century eyes, with our 21st century values and capabilities. Things have changed. As I said earlier, I am sure we ALL have odd, questionable things in our heritage. In about 1902 it was assumed that my great-aunt spent 17 years in prison. She returned to her family and never said a word about it. No one will ever know why she was gone, but there was plenty of speculation in the family, from being a madam to possibly murdering one of her clients. Does it matter? Not to me. It is a great story, though. My husband's grandfather had two families, one on each end of the railroad line he worked on. He didn't die of TB, either, like the family lore has it. But they don't know how he really died, and, to their knowledge, no one from either family has ever met. My great-grandmother did not know that her mother died in another state until several years later, either. She hadn't run away or anything. She was simply out-of-touch for a few years. It is just the way it was back then. And, they didn't always know cause of death. People simply died and were buried. A lot of personal fortunes - personal, financial, historical, political - have gone astray through history. Even things thought to be well-documented, like historic battles, JFK's assassination - for goodness' sake, even the moon landing is disputed! It is all wonderfully interesting, and part of our lives. Five thousand dollars is a lot to spend on curiosity, though, to my way of thinking. But, if you have the money, spend it on whatever you like. Fundraising? Well, um.....

I'm another who really enjoys the old photos. And, I really need to do something about preserving my collection. My late husband and I have been the 'family historians' on both his and my side of the family, I have photos that date back into the 1800's. This is my maternal Grandmother, circa late 1890's, I think. She passed away in the 1920's, before I was born. And here is my paternal Grandmother, circa late 1800's, not sure of exact date of her death, probably between 1900 & 1905 or so. And here are my paternal grandparents with a baby girl that passed away at a very young age. I believe this picture was taken before my Dad was born in 1900. I had never heard anything about this child, until I came across this photo a few years ago. And of course, it was too late to ask my Dad about it. Rusty

More random ranting: LOL Robo about the WASP weddings. There's a bit of WASP vs ethnic and also introvert vs extrovert going in my relationship with SO. I am however, half WASP, really waspy WASP, (as in Anglo Saxon protestant, not Teutonic protestant) so I am used to some of the restraint, to say the least . . . :) I also found out that the color for the wedding is not "red" per se, rather it is crimson, so the shirt/tie combo I liked will have to go back regardless. On the plus side, with a light grey shirt, the suit and shirt will also pass for our wedding, so that will save us some money from having to buy two shirts. I only suggested the red shirt combo because it was on super sale. Here's a photo so you can see what I was envisioning with SO's dark coloring. Surprisingly, SO liked the flouncy floral dresses, particularly the one with the grey background. He thought they would be flattering for my figure. He opined, not without merit, that an a-line dress might be too form-fitting and emphasize my less-than-perfectly-proportional hips. Possibly not, but only trying on will tell. I think I will order all three dresses.

First, thanks, All, for your thoughts. Today's my last day at work 'til the new year, and this is going to be my project. I was reading online what some people say they own /think is appropriate. One woman said she owns something like 250 hanging shirts PLUS an overflowing drawer of tees. Okay, I feel a little better about myself ... at a guess, I suspect I have 75-ish hanging items in my closet plus a shelf of sweaters above. Yet this morning I went to the dryer and pulled out a shirt to wear. Hey, I have two pairs of jeans, slacks in black, navy, gray and Khaki, lots of plain t-shirt-style tops, sweatshirts for cold weather, several pairs of shorts for hot weather. I survive. I'm pretty much with you ... in terms of what I actually wear. What I have that I actually wear is one pair of jeans, one pair of black jeans (which I sneaky-sneaky wear to work all the time), and two pairs of work-appropriate slacks -- one gray, one light brown with a herringbone pattern. I have a couple other pairs of work slacks that, um, won't zip anymore -- can't understand why! :( My plan for them is to pack them in a box and label them with a date one year from today. In one year, if I can wear them, they can stay -- if not, they're going to Goodwill without the box being opened. I think it depends on a lot of factors. Do you work outside the house? Do you exercise, play tennis, etc...? Do you live in a climate w/ four distinct seasons? How frequently do you do laundry? I do work, but I'm retiring in roughly two years. I just last night thought to myself, "I will not buy work clothes any more" -- or, I will buy sparingly, replacing only as actually needed. I actually do need a new pair of black flats. We Carolinians do have seasons, but winter is mild (40s being our typical lows). Thing is, these are also my church clothes and my going-out-somewhere-casual clothes, so I can't out-and-out STOP owning these things. But once I retire, I will not need the quantity I have now. Yes to exercising, but I feel comfortable with that arena of my wardrobe. I have "just enough" without excess. Similarly, my coats and shoes seem to be "just enough" -- that is, I have what I need, and nothing sits un-used. Must analyze: how is it that I've chosen better in these arenas? Shoes are kind of easy to analyze: A couple years ago I developed Plantar Fasciitis, so many of my shoes had to be replaced. Fortunately, my two daughters wear the same shoe size and were quite willing to take all those nice strappy sandals and heels that I could no longer wear. I can wear a couple brands of sandals -- and they're not all old-lady looking, but I have to be so very PICKY -- and I can wear any shoe into which I can slip my small orthopedic insert. Surprisingly, I have not missed one single item and it's refreshing to not have the closet overflowing. Yeah, I want to be able to say that. Do a goggle search on "personal uniforms" I didn't know that term, but I think I'm already doing that. My go-to work outfit is a Lands End knit dress ... worn on its own in fall/spring, worn with a cardigan in winter. I have probably a dozen of their dresses in a variety of colors. I don't wear this exclusively, but I probably wear this type of thing three days out of five ... especially in warmer weather. Also, search on" LBD project". "LBD" stands for "little black dress". Oh, no. I know you mean well, but I hate little black dresses. With all the colors in the world, why do women flock to no color? Go to a party, and all the women are wearing the same color? I own exactly one black dress -- one of my Lands End knit dresses -- and I always wear it with a colorful cardigan or jewelry. I want a closet that looks like one of those photo shoots in an Ikea advertisement where there are just two pairs of shoes, a couple of folded pants and a half dozen tunics. I'm not sure I want anything quite that minimal, but I understand your point. I am glad that I can sew, when I can find a suitable fabric to sew with. I can sew, and about a hundred years ago (when I was in college) I worked in the sewing section of Belk's department store -- they no longer have that department. I don't particularly enjoy sewing, but I'm compotent. Being 4'11", I do excel at hemming. I love loose linen pants and the concept of dressing that is referred to as "langenlook". It is a loose style of dressing. Reminds me: I recently saw a picture on a travel site of a woman wearing a pair of loose linen pants and a white peasant blouse. I have several blouses (in several colors) similar to the one she was wearing. She was saying it was a perfect, comfortable travel outfit, and it would work with casual sandals or Toms-type slip-ons. I liked it enough to look it up online -- I liked the pants in a tan linen and a pink linen -- and I thought I'd ask my husband to get them for me for my birthday, which is in spring. As I said, I'm not far from retirement, and I thought that'd be a nice type of thing to have as I transition out of my school-marm things. I have always been good at work clothes and ultra-casual clothes, but I have never felt quite comfortable with the "in between outfits"; that is, I'm not good at pulling together an outfit that says "full-fledged adult meeting girlfriends for lunch and shopping" -- and I'd like to be better at that. I can look like I just stepped out of my classroom, or I can look like I'm about to go cut firewood, and I do "fancy" well -- but I would like to feel more "put together" for casual events like a baby shower or going out to a museum. Hey, hey, hey -- STOP IT! I'm trying to get rid of things, and here you are encouraging me in a different direction! (Pouting.) Most women buy so many things in an effort to piece it all together. When I was younger (and used shopping as a hobby without fully realizing it), I was very guilty of buying pieces and pieces, especially sale items ... then never wearing them because I didn't have anything to match. I have become better about that over the years. I don’t think it’s outfits per se, it’s pieces that can make up a ton of different outfits. I think that 's a fair statement -- as long as they do add up to outfits. I've learned to be more intentional with my purchases. At this point I do have pants that I can't wear any more because the shirt that matched them was stained /thrown away, etc. my only exception is cocktail dresses, since they don't get worn as often. That brings up another issue ... fancy dresses are taking up more than their fair share of my closet. I'm at the age at which my daughters /my friends' daughters are getting married, so I need to keep these dresses. Obviously, I don't want to downsize my dresses, then find myself forced to buy something new for an event. Only one of my daughters is married, but I have two mother-of-the-bride dresses. A funny story -- funny now: I bought a great dress and was very happy ... until my mother-in-law texted me picture of the very same dress, saying she'd just bought it! She was iffy on whether she'd wear it or not, and I just couldn't trust her not to do it ... so I had to go buy a second dress, which I liked less. Both are in my closet. And in the end, she didn't wear the dress! I could've worn it to the wedding. Back to the point: How /where do y'all store such items? I was thinking of taking them off the hangers, gently folding them, and storing them in a basket on the difficult-to-reach top shelf. If I'm going to wear one of these dresses (I live in a world of casual dresses and jeans), I'll have weeks of notice, and I can take it out, hang it, even have it cleaned. Good idea or bad idea? Thanks, All, for your ideas.