Ok, Grrrr. It seems not only did I exceed the bandwidth of my photo sharing site (until tomorrow when my month is over I think), but it appears that I may have crashed the Ft2Garden.com server bandwidth as well. I was posting about the photo site when it gave me an error when I tried posting. After checking Judy's blog and the Ft2Garden.com forum, they were all down. I can only assume the two are related. Who knew my 15 minutes of fame would have such unintended consequences. Oops!

Great photos especially of the marmot love it! Sarah

Seniorgal, you and I are so close in age and have grown up in the same times. I've read and enjoyed all your stories. Because all my life has been lived in the South, your winter stories were especially interesting to me. Today's story I can relate to even more because of it being about the war years. My husband-to-be was in the Army Air Force when we met; I was 17, and while my story is far different from yours, there are many similarities, and each had a happy ending, except that my story ended 32 years ago when he was stricken with cancer. I also write; many years ago I joined a Writer's Group and I've been writing ever since. It is definitely therapeutic. Have you considered starting a writer's group in your retirement community? Others may find writing to be helpful to them. Keep the stories coming. Sue

Another wonderful look back in time, Seniorgal. I was reminded of my mother, who rose through the ranks at a Providence, RI department store to become personal assistant to the director of personnel. (She wouldn't even be hired today, with only a HS degree and a few college courses. This makes me think that today we are leaving capable people behind!) Are you enjoying the Masterpiece Theater presentation "Mr. Selfridge"? I see so many similarities between Selfridge's and Chicago's Marshall Field's -- where Selfridge began his career. I've yet to see the story include the overhead tubes through which capsules of cash from the customer went to the accounting office, with any 'change' immediately returned. Those fascinated me as a child.