My grandparents were mostly born not only in the US, but in Chicago before the turn of the century, unusual for our tribe. Before the Depression, my grandfather was very wealthy, and his young bride had a number of "Depression glass" pieces. They lost every penny in the Crash, and my mother grew up bewtween that and WW2 rationing. When grandma died, I asked for the glass candy dishes and crocks in ruby red and green, plus her 1920 Deco dishes. I have carried those keepsakes with me for the past 20 years, over international water, moving to new countries, new houses, you name it. I also have my paternal grandmother's soup pot, which I still use all the time; it must be at least 60-70 years old. But the most missed thing for me are the stories of my great uncle, grandma's brother. As a young Jewish boy in the 1920's, the story goes that 6 months before completing dental school, he upped and left to be a hobo and ride the rails. The family was so ashamed that they never allowed him to tell the stories, especially to us kids growing up in the 60's. He died never having told any of the family of his travels. My sisters and I always felt that this was a huge loss.

I recently had a neighbor approach me as I was fixing some rotted siding on my garage. This is the neighbor whose lawn is saturated with creeping charlie. He asked, hey with all the money you are putting into this house, are you planning on staying here awhile? First, the repairs we were making weren't for cosmetic purposes, they were more functional. I'd assumed, "all the money" meant all the landscaping we've done ourselves. I love my yard, and I regret not getting started on it sooner when we purchased our home in 2004, we waited a few years and focused on the interior, with no relaxing, private, soothing patio to relax on. But, oh, today, we can enjoy sitting on our patio on our very small lot, with privacy from our neighbors. It's nice, and would I love to purchase a home with the landscaping already done? You bet, but I don't regret that I had to do it myself, because now I'm hooked and I love what I've learned - gardening and landscaping is very therapeutic to me. I've also wondered how much is too much, but I've been told by neighbors that I'm their inspiration, and we have people stopping at the front of our house to view our property from time to time, so we are heading in the right direction, especially as plants begin to mature. I have a small back yard, and yet in my rear yard I have a poplar tree (soon to be replaced), a mature lilac shrub, a hedge of privets, 2 smokebush trees/shrubs, a green giant thuja, an emerald green thuja, 5 purple leaf sand cherries, a serviceberry, a red japanese maple, a heptacodium, and a katsura willow tree, among various perennials, vines, and evergreen and deciduous shrubs. I'm thinking of adding a degroots spire and replacing the poplar with a dogwood or magnolia. The placement for each works, and creates a nice lush private space for us. I have run out of planting space, but I don't intend to lose more lawn, so now it's just waiting for everything to reach maturity and a matter of enjoying what we created. As long as you are comfortable in your own space, that's all that matters. There are a couple homes that we see on our walks in the neighborhood, with the front lawn completely over done in an awkward cottage style. There's nothing wrong with the style, but I think when homes like that are wedged between other homes with more open or formal landscaping, it looks odd and out of place. I feel sorry for the immediate neighbors. In my opinion when all you see is the landscaping from the curb and not the house, that's when you've gone overboard. I dread the day we sell our home and someone who doesn't appreciate what we've done lives here. We joke about it sometimes. But, I've recently heard from some new owners in the neighborhood that others talk about the work we've done on the house with the "striped awnings", so it's nice to hear when you've invested so much sweat into improving it and making it your own. I don't care if anyone thinks we've put too much money into our house. We didn't buy to flip it, and I don't ask everyone else how they spend their money.

It's a nice idea. It is even a Good Thing. But it will not guarantee that kids become readers. I read to all three of my children daily as they were growing up, took them to the library frequently, and bought them books as often as I could afford to do so. They all grew up to be competent readers (though one of them struggled along the way). However, while they are happy to read for information, rarely do any of them read for pleasure. I was surprised and disappointed. The love of books is such an integral part of me that I was sure I was passing it along. This was a hard one for me to accept, but eventually I recognized that we have to respect our children as individuals with their own tastes, talents, and interests. Undeterred but less confident, we are trying all over again with my husband's grandchildren. We send books as well as toys for Christmas and birthdays, and once in a while for no particular reason at all. The oldest is now in high school and has pretty much lost all his early interest in in reading in favor of sports, but I have cautious hope for one or two of the others. Rosefolly

Yvonne and Donnamira; Bookworm and egghead were certainly used as putdowns (then and perhaps still). Depending on the intonation, they were labels to rationalize a sense of envy and to equalize by mockery. I don't know why there's a need for people to do this, but the need can't be refuted with logic. It just is. as far as I can comprehend it. Another I now recall, dripping with sarcasm: "She's one of those smart girls," as if smartness in females was always undesirable. Another saying was "Guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses" seemed to follow the "smart girls" snarkiness too often! Book loving is associated in some minds to the "pinking" of an activity. There's been a backlash toward males who like to read when they could be doing more masculine pursuits.