I learned to sew from my mother who and made most of our clothes and all our doll clothes. She saved a piece of the cloth of everything she made for us and my sister and I are now cutting all those pieces into squares for a couple of quilts. We laugh ourselves to tears in the process. We were all in 4-H. We also sewed in home ec. Now, however, we would never be able to have machines at the middle school level due to parents' safety concerns, but the home ec teacher still teaches kids to sew by hand. They make stuffed animals and do cross stitch. I teach my 6th grade art students to weave, and we all make woven bags with twisted cord straps. That being said, things that we learned at home are no longer common. I am no longer amazed by how many kids don't know what their clothes are made out of, or have absolutely no idea how to thread a needle (that pointy thingy), they don't know yarn from string, they have never heard the word "stitch" and it is not unusual to have one not know how to tie a knot (velcro shoes you know). Before I started teaching I would have never imagined I'd have to demonstrate to my classes how to take the end of a piece of yarn and start rolling it into a ball, but now I do it all the time. Amazing. Bravo to you all who make stuff with your kids - I suspect you read to them to!

Even though my marriage was over after just under 10 years, I still think we did the wedding just right. We were married at Niagara Falls with just our families. Yes, it was a destination wedding but we weren't requiring anyone to come. We were eloping and if our family wanted to be there they were welcome to be there. We knew it wasn't a financial hardship on anyone except maybe my cheap FIL but my MIL was thrilled because it was the only real 'vacation' she ever had. I don't think she's ever even been to the beach and she is over 60 (and she lives within just a few hours of the beach!) The weather was beautiful and everyone had a good time. We were married outside on the American side of the falls and my parents paid for dinner in a private room at the Red Coach Inn. The kids did the touristy stuff, the adults got to gamble at the casino. My sister was able to bring her dog who is part of our family. It was just a great, fun and relaxing weekend. My cousin had a HUGE fancy wedding and her marriage lasted less than a year. I have never seen so many gifts at a bridal shower. I just feel sad that she wasted that on her first husband since she has a great marriage with her second husband and they didn't do a big thing since, well, it just didn't seem right after the first wedding. Actually I have at least three cousins who had VERY short marriages after big weddings. Our generation just hasn't been very lucky in that respect, no matter how big the wedding was.

annpanagain, re your earlier comments on library closures, it turned out that the village we moved to in July lost its local library in April, part of cutbacks that saw 20% of libraries in the county council closed. There is a monthly mobile library service to the village. I am probably fortunate in that the county town is only 3 miles away and the central library there, readily accessible as I drive, is well stocked. After joining I came away with 3 books. The first, which I have already finished, was by a new author to me - Giles Kristian, with Raven Blood Eye, the first of a trilogy about Vikings' expansions into England. The other 2 were crime novels - 4th of July by James Patterson, a women's murder club offering; and a gentler The Coniston Case by Rebecca Tope, the third in her Lake District trilogy. I am looking forward to making good use of this library facility and saving myself a fortune. I have read over 50 books already this year and do not even want to think how much I have spent.

Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails............Anthony Swofford