matoad: my parents let me shift from the passenger seat all the time...probably why I am such a good driver with a standard! but we didn't have a push button ignition...we had an old VW square back that could be started with the tiniest of pushes from behind. DigitS: My finger print, of course!! Not a worry these days with all that digital technology around. And T.V.! Yeah, we had a tiny box of black and white with "13" channels only not all the channels were there. We only got to watch a very small amount: Star Trek, and any of the programs on PBS, like Nova, In Search Of, that yoga guy, I forget his name, and Sesame Street. I used to get pissy when my mom was watching ... was it Dick Cavet or Merv Griffin? Either way, one of those was on at the same time as Felix the cat...so sad. Funny, I haven't had a T.V. in about ten years but I netflix (on my computer) all the old Star Treks and also that Star Trek Deep Space 9! My brother and I stayed with our grandparents every weekend and they would take us to garage sales. My gram never paid more than a nickel or, sometimes--rarely, a dime for stuff. That is when she would remind me that movies used to cost a nickel. When the prices rose and she could only get away with paying a quarter at rummage sales, she decided they were too pricey! We went to the drug store for ice cream. While gram bought prescriptions, grampa would buy us ice cream for a few cents. Gosh, I think it was 25 cents a cone, for three scoops?? It was cheap. Grampa always got strawberry, I got chocolate and I don't remember what my brother got. My bro and I used to make model cars, rockets and monsters, like Lon Chaney as this or that monster. We would blow up the models with firecrackers and then display them on our shelves. I saw lots of the models we had, un-blown up, on eBay for a zillion dollars. Oops! We had our friends over yesterday (oooh, that is so in the past) and I used the relish tray that I found in grannies attic. It was brand new and pink speckle from...gee, must have been the late fifties. The box it was in was disintegrating, falling apart. In junior high school, I wore clothes from grannies closet, I would fix them up so they would fit as gram was a pretty big gal. All the kids were curious as to why I had such neat clothes. gosh, I loved reading what everyone wrote! J.

where to begin... I have a desk almost identical to yours. It had been refinished when I bought it 40 or so years ago. It's mostly walnut, called a spinnet desk, mine was from Sears and Roebuck, I found a sticker in the drawer and also found the identical desk in their catalog, dating from 19 10 or so. The hinges on mine are new....but they are just like tha old that you have....so apparently they broke. The lamp is called a bridge lamp, from the arm that sticks out. Very unlikely it would be bronze, more likely brass in need of a good polishing. The shade most likely isn't vellum ( hide) but more likely parchment paper. The Chair is called a Boston Rocker....and they are very comfortable. The lamps are called "Fairy Lamps" or sometimes courting lamps, I can't tell if they are old or were sold in the 1920's with perfume...I need to see the bottom of the glass font and a closer view of the burner. The clock is called a Regulator (Duh!) and often found in a school house. What does it say on the dial? That will be a clue. The bar is a Italian Provincial style bar....don't know what else to say about that. Hope this helps some. Linda C

No the property was not condemned. In my town, when a property is sold but not correctly maintained it can be sold "as is" for a low price so and if things are not up to Code, the new Owner is obligated to correct those violations. I purchased the house "as is" for a very good price and have been making those corrections. I did pay the other "inspector" $700 to "inspect", clean and make small repairs to the boiler and fireplace in September I believe it was. Thankfully, CO detectors were installed by the previous Owner prior to us taking possession. Our DOB mandated that HE do this before I moved in. As of yet, none of gone off - thank God.

Side topic: Salgal, it's a shame your ex didn't tell his half-sib WHY he dropped her. She must have been terribly hurt. What you've described is the natural familial attraction that bonds families. When it doesn't take place between young children within their natural families, and they first meet as adults, the love and familiarity sometimes feels sexual. At my search and support group we always warned reuniting adoptees and birthfamily members about this. Knowing that these powerful feelings could be confusing helped to prevent some terrible heartaches. Where people misinterpreted the feelings and acted on them sexually, it destroyed the development of a genuine family bond. An adoptee, having lived a whole life knowing he is 'different', separated from his genetic kin, is especially vulnerable to mistaking powerful feelings of connection. (This is entirely separate from an adoptee's love for the adoptive parents and siblings.)