Such a great, great, great movie. I have a story about it and I swear on my children's lives absolutely true. Tragic ending, IMO.... Sometime in the mid-80's, as was typical, teen me is chilling out in the pre-5000 channel era watching an old movie on a Sunday afternoon. I love Cary Grant, and have parents that are renovation addicts, so this one is particularly fun for me. Mom comes in and joins me, we laugh at the silliness and finally she says, " Uncle L has that house." Me, "Who?" "My uncle L, he's W's father." "Why don't I know him?" "Because he's an abusive and mean old SOB that no one likes very much, but he built my Aunt M that house - she's the one that died long ago in the car accident." "He doesn't have THAT house!" "Yes, yes he does, they built a bunch of them to promote the movie, although he couldn't get one of those. But, Aunt M wanted one. So one day he just called the studio in Hollywood. He actually talked to a producer on the phone and convinced them to send him the plans. I'm pretty sure they still have the plans and signed letter from the producer that came with them. He also owns a whole bunch of land where he goes hunting and fishing - he had all the timber and siding on the house cut from his own property and waited for it to cure before he built the house. It's an amazing, beautiful house." I was in it since that conversation, and yes, it was. Here's the tragic part - the immediate family never told anyone when it was time to sell it. My uncle died 9 yrs. ago this Spring (he lived in the house until his death in his 90's) and DH and I were looking to move to the town he had lived in to be closer to DH's work. We live in that town today. We really wanted to buy it but my cousin insisted on selling some of the land separately for commercial zoning - we didn't want commercial property right up against us, so we said no thanks. The house with a small amount of yard around it ended up being sold at auction for less than $200,000, I believe it is being used as a rental property and every time I drive by it I want to cry. It looks terrible and unloved, and honestly, the old guy had kept very good care of it until the last couple years. It has such an amazing story behind it, and I am sure that almost no one knows that it is a Blandings Dream House - except my cousin, I don't even know how much his own kids know about the story or if he kept the paper work that went with it. I would love to put the word out about it, because I believe there are organizations that keep track of the houses built in the promotion that try to get them preserved. But I'd just feel like I'm screwing over my cousin, and that the fools that don't take care of it now could stand to make a killing on it just because of what it is. Too bad, isn't it?

Wish I could delete because I thought to go through my Amazon purchases and found it. It's Spinning Jenny by McLain.

Lol, agree Olliesmom. Yes, loved the Jessica McClintock Aka Gunne Sax dresses. Although even then some were too granny for me. We used to have 2 Gunne Sax outlets not too far away, back in the day of real factory outlets. They had a totally different name nothing related to Gunne Sax. You could get the dresses for 50 to 90% off, so I owned too many. My last Jessica McClintock dress was purchased at a local JM store at an upscale mall, several hundred dollars by and not granny style at all. Wore it as Maid of Honor for my mom’s second wedding, 3 weeks after the birth of my daughter. Had to guess the size, thankfully it fit.

'Ground cherry' is a name given to various members of the Physalis genus. They are closely related to tomatillos and have a slightly tart, picante flavor. So not precisely a fruit in the same manner that tomatoes are not a fruit :-) You can include them in salsas, salads or turn them into jams or pies. They are sometimes referred to as Cape gooseberries too but that is actually a different species of Physalis. FWIW, they are not related to any bramble berries (blackberries, etc.) or to gooseberries, currants or huckleberries or other Vaccinium. Elmer, they are native to North and Central America and can be grown anywhere here as an annual but do not constitute a commercially viable crop so are seldom seen outside of gardens or farmer's markets.