I think the trim on the dress may be rayon,could be silk but it looks like the trim on my baby bonnet from 1942. Rayon was used a lot, I have some rayon bias tape that is from 1930's.It is a kind of twisted stuff, you can untwist the cord on the dress I think so made up of several strands & then sewn on with small stitches over the cord going in direction of the twist so they can't even be seen. The chiffon type fabric is used in doll clothes in late 1800's & early 1900's. Might talk to someone who collects old dolls & show them pics. They could probably identify all the materials used. Better check on those flour sacks before you wash them & find out value try "textiles", 'kitchen" "ADVERTISING"try that 1 1st. Different books & different sites call things by different names. Lovely gown. One idea would be to get photo of the wedding couple & add a piece of gown(taken from back so won't show) & put under glass around 1 side of photo along with another item if you have it,(piece of jewelry she wore- wedding announcement in paper, maybe bit of flour sack from 1 not in such great shape) use an acidfree piece of heavy stock to mount all this in a nice way to enjoy & put in frame fronted with glass. Hang near the gown. A letter would be nice with her handwriting. That way you would have a little bit of her still with you!! Jan

red_lover - again putting on my photographer's hat in regard to flowers (if you prefer that I don't chime in, please let me know, I don't mean to be overbearing). You may want to consider real flowers for DD bouquet. I know that I typically get close ups of the bouquet and silk ones (no matter how high the quality) never look quite the same as real ones do in close ups - they don't reflect the light the same way and there's always a few random "strings" as well that are give aways. Far away (i.e. normal viewing distance, many people won't know the difference, but in close ups of the flowers, it's something that you see. The drawback (aside from cost) with real is that they do wilt/die. Avoid "delicate" flowers or make certain that the photographer gets the details of DD flowers at the start of the day (actually, I do this as a matter of course - they are at their peak then). Another option that DD may want to look into is something that is less traditional, but looks beautiful and can tie into the antique theme well - the brooch bouquet. (I've attached a photo from one that I photographed before) Not necessarily cheaper by any stretch, but it can become a gorgeous keepsake. There's the possibility to even "deconstruct" it later and use the various pins with outfits, or possibly even hand down special pins to (possible) children that she and her future DH have together. Do silk for the bridemaids - I've seen a lot of brides who do that and it works pretty well.

Don't forget that the S&L debacle of the 80's was also triggered by changes instituted by our government. Income tax law changes made the ownership of real estate much more financially rewarding, which of course created a higher demand for real estate, thereby drove up the price. Developers saw a fabulous market and built more and more office buildings, shopping centers, apartment buildings, etc. At about the same time S&L's were allowed to invest in more types of loans and other investments. This was done in part because they were being creamed holding long-term low-rate home loans and paying out high interest on deposits. 15% CD's were not unheard of at that time, and 12% were common. Meanwhile the 30 year mortgages they had made a few years back were only paying 5 or 6% interest to the S&L's. These changes were both made by the government, but not as a concerted effort. In each case the laws were changed to address one issue. Then, at about the same time most S&L's had a lot of money lent on overpriced real estate, Congress decided to change real estate tax laws again - making real estate a less attractive investment. Not surprisingly, real estate values tanked at a time when many markets were way overbuilt to begin with. S&L's were left with loans that had looked solid at one point and found themselves having to foreclose loans on buildings that they couldn't sell and could sometimes could not even lease out. Yes there were crooks in the S&L business, who helped ruin some institutions, and we all read about those. But plenty of honest institutions found themselves in severe trouble as well. I worked for a life insurance holding company, managing income property loans. I made a career change just before the bottom dropped out, but I still talked with several people who had to deal with that mess. In the case of my former employer, they stopped making new loans in Texas when the markets started getting overbuilt. But they still had plenty of existing loans when the markets tanked. Being a nationwide company, only a small percentage of their loans were in severely depressed markets. But S&L's generally lent in their immediate area, or at least their home state. I don't remember if this was due to regulation or custom. At any rate, even the best-run S&L in many markets nearly collapsed. ------------------------------ Whew, I didn't mean to write so much! At any rate, my point is that the best-intentioned body of lawmakers will never understand every ramification of the laws they pass. They can easily cause as many problems as they fix. In the case of the unreasonable debit card holds, it really is a minute percentage of institutions that do this. In this case, I believe the gas station is the party at fault. In the whole debit-card system, banks have no way of verifying the amounts that merchants submit. Most merchants are honest and reasonably careful - if for no other reason than that they want repeat business.

Looks like somebody got out of it with the 3 day period. 1/19/2007 - Jason of California, USA writes: My wife and I decided to pull out and did so within the 3 day grace period and our money WAS refunded.The day we went to cancel we signed the form but the salesman did not give us a copy.Figuring I needed that for proof I went back in the next day and the saleman present that day had a real hard time finding our cancelation form.He finally found it after I threatened to file a police report.I can't vouch for thier service.You also have to make arrangments for all pickups yourself and it seem returning takes a long time.I mean what if your fridge goes down?You need one right away correct?You don't have time to go into Direct Buy and thumb through catalogs and wait 6-8 weeks for delivery.Best of luck with your experience,I'm glad mine is behind me. Here is a link that might be useful: Infomercial ratings direct buy