the big guys have shoved out so many of the little guys around here that i have no idea where the little guys who sell a 6-pack of socks are, if there even are any….everything seems to be a link of a Chain.

i need to start knitting socks.

Thanks so much for the link!
I called my mom right after I read it to find out where the field was that we always hunted arrowheads in when I was younger, but she wasn’t quite sure. My DAD would be able to give detailed directions, because he was the mover and shaker behind us going there to sift our hands through freshly plowed soil. My sister found a nice arrowhead once, and my dad found some arrowheads and a shard of pottery and an old grinding stone, but I always left with empty hands. Actually, I usually left with some cool rocks or flowers, but, alas, never found my own arrowhead. Perhaps my lack of patience was a deterrent. Anyway, the field was by a river outside of Binghamton somewhere, and it holds some fun memories of seven kids and two parents digging earth like woodchucks. Again, not entirely true. I don’t remember my mom and a few kids always being as enthusiastic about all the digging as my Dad was…:)

Also, thanks for the news about Wal-mart. Man, and I always thought this sprawling monster of a corporation was interested in me personally. I recently completed a survey in which I was asked to rate, on a scale of something to something, how much I was treated as a valued customer at Wal-mart. Since my only purchase was a package of toddler socks for $2.50, I rated it “not at all” because I’m sure the Big Men weren’t jumping up and down about the money I made them.

Although John and I prefer ma and pop places to large chains (with a few exceptions on my part…try finding a ma and pop buffet table outside of your own family’s house), we still shop at Wal-mart. Our convictions haven’t yet overruled my desire to grasp pennies by saving some from a stupid smiley face. So you can spurn me now….I’ve a yellow belly.

my friend margaret was raised on a family-run dairy farm, and she’s going to Cornell right now for veterinary medicine. i’ll tell her to steer clear of Uncle Ezra.