This has been a fun read. Lat week when I was grocery shopping, looking through the meat section, a man and his son were there, the son,( about 8 years old, had a large plastic dinosoare,he dropped it a few times, got bored waiting for his dad, so decided he would take the tail of his toy,and poke it into all the meat,not being content with that, he starts poking his finger into the meat,all while the dad was right next to him. I said to the dad," Your son just poked his toy into all the meat," he says to me,"Ya, whatever!Grabs a few steaks and walks away.I pulled all the meat,and gave it to the butcher,who,I hope, threw it out.I noticed, he did buy the meat his son "played" with. My SIL. took her young daughter grocery shopping one day,they always stopped for a bubblegum ice cream cone when they were done, this day, her daughter was not behaving,and :demanded: they go get an ice cream,now! When they were done shopping, she brought her daughter home, then went back out,alone,when she came home, she was chewing some bubble gum from the ice cream, her daughter wanted to know where she got it, she told her, "Well, we always stop for an ice cream, but you were so naughty, when I brought you home, I went and got one for my self"It sure was good, had extra gum in it this time, as she blew a bubble.She never has trouble with her after that, I thought that was brilliant. Not much bothers me,although, I can relate to the swinging bridge,when my children were small, the husband,thought it would be fun to " swing" the bridge,some things are just Not funny.To this day, I hate them, also, my youngest does not like to drive over bridges,he don't know why. Ha! cAROL

I guess I was a quiet little girl, I played cards...had a set of Authors and Old Maid cards...and my great grandmother taught me to play casino. My grandfather made me a spool knitter and I made miles of that stuff and then coiled it for mats. I had a bead loom. And for several yearsI had a washing machine box which got folded up and stored in the garage when it wasn't a house. It had a door with a knob on it and windows with shutters and even a chair inside. The grand kids loved it! And there was always a sandbox....I remember once when my husband was planning on doing some brick work in the backyard and he had about 2 tons of builders sand dumped on the drive way. Like magic that pile gathered kids with little cars and dolls and it was perfectly silent as each one made roads and ran their little cars around!

We aren't too old for bows!! Forget the ones with bunnies & such but a solid color even with a single line of trim down the middle pulls the hair out of the way & makes it neat. Lots of women all ages use hair bows out here. I wear a bun(ponytail,wrap hair around fingers run small plain barrette to hold & pin down so it looks like I don't have any hair. So if I know someone is taking pics of me or going to DMV I make sure I have a not too floppy bow in red, navy or black so when I see the pic I don't look bald. I can braid my hair but that also can break it so just easier to wear it up. It's so fine that now that its thinner the french roll slides out, I had a donut shaped mesh thing with brown covering years ago I used & wrapped my hair around that, sure wish I'd saved it. I don't like feel of scarves, baseball cap, headband etc around my head, my sun hats last about 10 min unless wind blows them off 1st. I was kid that didn't wear a hat of any kind as a kid, long acrylic scarves that were about 15-18 in. wide were worn only to keep warm & ears & nose from freezing off. Bows are comfortable & sometimes hide my wild hair!!Tho it has a mind of its own! Jan

Most of my new clothes come with spares in a tiny plastic or paper hang tag. I use those. For the paper ones I write what garment, label--a quick way to ID it--on the tag and it goes in a covered buttons box, which also holds tins of loose buttons. I also write the date of purchase and owner. Oh, and in my case, the SIZE. I remember the day I threw away the spare buttons for my wedding dress, which was a size 4. No use for those in the foreseeable future. For the plastic bags I write up that description on scrap paper or an index card and insert it inside. Or use a small ziploc bag (snack size). On those EXTREMELY rare occasions that I actually go looking for a spare button, I take 1 extra minute to cull what I come across that rings a bell as no longer in service. Quick, efficient. One other use for buttons: There was a housekeeping book back in the 70s or 80s by Carol Eisen, titled Nobody Said You Had To Eat Off The Floor. She was talking about methods of stress-relief (before it was a popular topic--housewives apparently had it before it was "discovered"). She said when she felt really overwhelmed she laid across the bed eating a tuna fish sandwich and sorted her old buttons by WEIGHT! So, keep some on hand for that. Maybe you'll go on Oprah with your new method.