Our district has a wonderful volunteer program, especially for such a large district and poor areas. You havee to be approved, fingerprinted, and your records checked for felonies. This is all because of the problems in our society today. Anyway, I was always fortunate to have parents who would come in to help prepare materials for me, help with center activities when I needed extra eyes and ears and hands, as well as going on field trips, etc. These same parents would bring in supplies for the children who didn't bring in any from home. When our district went to uniforms, local organizations collected clothes to give to those who could not afford to buy them Now these are not expensive ones like private schools have, they are just basic t-shirts and the shorts/pants, skirts, and jumpers could be bought at Wal-Mart or Target and were the same colors throughout the district. They are now even allowed to wear jeans. The t shirts can't have anything on them unless its the school name and logo. Well, our school would start getting calls at the end of the year with parents wanting to get clothes for the next year. It has ended up that schools provide (with the help of local organizations) not only the tops and bottoms but socks and underwear! Parents would send the kids to school NOT in uniforms knowing that the school would have the kids change and then the parents would not send the clothes back. It seems the more you do for the people, the more they expect. If everyone would just send in what is asked, it would be alot better but in a class of 20, I would probably have 5 or 6 that wouldn't bring in the first thing. Of course you can't fault the child but when you see the parents smoking or having designer handbags or shoes, it makes you really stop and think where their priorities are.

The next couple of reunions were at a local park under a pavilion with grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. I think money wise, that was more doable It seems like the ones I've been invited to were on the cheap also, maybe even held at the school itself. in high school my husband (then boyfriend) and I hung out together, didn't belong to any groups Likewise I didn't know that many people in high school - or really even have any fun experiences there, for the most part! it was no big deal I've never gone as I expected the same (in addition to the previously stated reasons) I could see maintaining something like college fraternity connections for a lifetime - making such connections is one of the reasons for joining a fraternity in the first place, right? - but public high school wasn't that kind of situation at all. Otherwise it is typical with small groups or similar situations for most of the participants to be quite happy to sit back and let a few do all the work while they look on. It is like we are a nation of couch potatoes expecting every experience to be a visual entertainment enjoyed with an absolute minimum of effort on one's own part. All the more so when "we" in a particular instance is a bunch of physically declining old people.

I too, like SnidelyWhiplash, appreciate the low cost and speed of a keyboard with internet. I was raised in a different time long before the internet when writing ability was important. I believe that good penmanship yet has merit in today.s world, albeit slow compared to the typed word with other modern conveniences. I am saddened to learn that cursive writing is no longer taught in some schools. Its no wonder that today;s students can't write. Printing is slow compared to cursive. Cursive characters are designed to flow smoothly into each other and this speeds writing. It leaves some latitude for individuals to develop their own distinctive styles. although that was frowned upon by teachers of the art some 70 years ago because they were striving to mold the output from everyone to standard form. Lets not forget that this country was built with cursive writing. Case in point: The Declaration of Independence is hand written in ink with a nib pen. The original Constitution was hand written. In fact, all court records such as land descriptions and marriages were hand written until the introduction of the typewriter in the 1880s.

For a relatively small windowless room, white/almond/beige countertop (habitat ReStore?) and walls painted light greenish-blue for airy feeling would look great. Maybe paint backslash area only with accent color. I think fluorescent lighting makes everybody look weird so I'd have daylight 3500K+ bulbs in floor lamp and hanging fixtures if possible. (consignment/Goodwill?) and paint bulletin board frames the accent color. Have fun!