List I just want to add my name to those who enjoy Vee's musings, remembrances, etc. I suppose it's because I'm 67 years old and even though I was raised ina German community in Missouri, I can identify with her time reference. I just finished reading about the "hollyhocks". We didn't make any dolls, after all I was a "boy", but I too have fond memories of the hollyhock volunteers that grew up in our massive yard, especially near the "little house in the back". My genealogical research is confined to Germany, once I break the boundaries of Missouri. I've thoroughly enjoyed my 25 years of research and after spending 30+ years with IBM, I am learning to "smell the roses ...(hollyhowks)...again. To a large extent I owe that to courageous people like Vee who aren't afraid to cast their bread upon the waters. I'm glad she is recovering. Take care, Ed Grefrath

Dear Ed, Thanks for posting such a lovely message to the list. I'm still having difficulty recovering from my surgery, but what keeps me going is the encouragement I receive from such people as you and the people on the list. You and I have spent long years in the research of our family history and I guess that both of us realize that there is more to understanding our families than what happened several hundred of years ago. After all, part of our family history includes our own memories of hollyhocks by the outhouse or even remembering how torturous it was to make the trek out there on a cold winter's night!! (OK, so Great Aunt Annie Bowers always had the thunder mug/chamber pot under the bed!) Hey, did you ever come upon your Grandpa or Uncle John spending time all by himself sitting on the stoop of the chicken coop having a conversation with the chickens in the yard? Or, for that matter, have you ever really listened to chickens? You know, they don't just go "cluck, cluck" all the time. I've always been a "city girl" but I think that the chickens and I could have quite an interesting conversation around this time in my life. Chickens have quite a vocabulary, you know! And I guess Grandpa and Uncle John knew that too. Yes, at our age we realize it's time to smell the roses or remember how to make hollyhock dolls, but at the same time, we also realize that it's important to let the kids in on a bit of our own memories. Or, hey, just to compare memories with each other. Those were the days, my friends! Yes, they were the days of the Depression and a number of wars that followed. Trust me, both Ed and I remember everything what went on in between then and now. But what sooths us now is remembering the sweet innocent years of our childhood instead of our dwelling on our 30+ years of our life-long careers. Thanks Ed for encouraging me to write this message. vee