O, eye sea. :loco:

There are states in the middle of the country? Do people live there?

Not really. Anyone who has taken a "road trip" from the east coast to the west coast.....and gone west "under the Great Lakes" would remember those states.........and then returned via the lower route........say out of Colorado Springs.....back to the east.......would remember those states.

Obviously, this should be a leisurely trip where one has time to discover all the great things about our country............not a race to get their quickly.

We were so impressed the first time we saw THE GREAT PLAINS and could just imagine how the covered wagons traveled across.

Ditto for the Badlands in South Dakota, etc.........

I think a lot more folks than one would suspect, can fill in a map of the United States...........especially all of those in our generation.

Plus, the trend is for all of our adult children "not" to marry the girl next door as in the "olden days" but to meet someone from across the country totally.......and they all relocate for their careers anyway.........so grandparents have to do a lot of traveling nowadays.........

That's good to know and Florida should be commended.
So, nowadays, present time........Florida is teaching cursive?
We always had penmanship and learned to write in cursive.
However, the kids up here do not .........
He heard it on the news........I'll find out....and post tomorrow, or sooner.

http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/4...162129365.html

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/J...ericas-Youth-/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/end-cursive/story?id=12749517

http://tribstar.com/news/x1435410216...s-to-be-taught

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_915402.html

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/1...levant279.html

He heard the discussion re the grandfather giving the girl a personal letter written in cursive........and she could NOT read it to her parents as she had never been taught to WRITE IN CURSIVE. A TEENAGER.
He heard it on his satellite radio in the car...............also, there are dozens of hyperlinks from various states all over the country.............but you get the idea............cursive is not taught in many schools......
They all PRINT in little block letters..........even in high school .


http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2013/jan/...it-means-when/
Above link is interesting as we were saying "How can the children read the Declaration of Independence" or any of the old manuscripts in Washington, D.C................or myself, doing genealogy, with many of the U.S. records all written in CURSIVE........not printed. If one is not taught cursive, how can one read the OLD RECORDS???????????? From all the links above, I've gathered that modern educators think cursive is archaic; keyboarding is "in".

I'm not making this up....
 

I had to laugh while reading a different thread (about a concealed weapons course recommendation) when someone quoted a pretty absurd statement and another poster asked if she had been able to keep a straight face when hearing it. Try this one; I’m usually pretty quick on my feet in situations like this, but this one just got away from me in terms of how to answer the final question.

I was chatting with someone I’d casually met at one of the squares (a mutual friend had introduced us) who was complaining about the difficulty of getting cousins together for the Thanksgiving holiday, as they were all scattered: one in Massachusetts, one in Ohio, one in Maryland, one somewhere in New York State, and her (let’s just say somewhere in the middle, so no one can point a finger at any particular state).

I listened thoughtfully, then explained that in one branch of my father’s family (my grandfather had married twice), we were seven first cousins, and after my brother had died many years ago and way too young, we were left six first cousins--and we live in six countries! Try a family reunion under those circumstances (yet we all did know each other)!

She looked at me blankly. What was I talking about? Didn’t I mean six states? So I explained, in age order, with a little family history and world geography:

Cousin David, who returned to Germany, the country of his birth, at the end of World War II and is now a retired journalist living in Berlin—the capital of Germany.

Then cousin Maya, who was a major in the Red Army during World War II (remember, the Soviets were our allies…) and is now a retired physicist living in Moscow—the capital of Russia.

Next comes cousin Gideon, who with his family spent seven years in Kenya setting up public health programs after that country got its independence and who now lives in Haifa, which is one of the major ports in Israel (not the capital city but the home of the world center of the Baha’i religion).

And then there was cousin Lili (now deceased), who was a librarian who adapted to become an information specialist, who lived in a suburb of Stockholm—the capital of Sweden.

Then comes cousin Jon, the actor, who at one time had taken a one-man “Groucho” show to various parts of the world, who is still an actor and who lives in London—the capital of England.

And finally there’s me, the youngest, now retired and living in The Villages.

Her response? Another blank, confused look, and then a question:

“Why did they all move so far away?”

It took all I had to keep a straight face….

Oh, two more!
 

When I was a kid (a VERY, VERY long time ago) in Montreal, Americans would show up in July with their roof racks filled with skis, asking "Where's the snow?..."

And freely available tee-shirts in Salzburg and Vienna that say "There are no kangaroos in Austria."

Need I say more?...

Last summer, I rented in The Villages in June for 10 days -- pretty warm. Last August, I visited Montreal for several days -- it was almost as warm and humid as The Villages in June -- I was really surprised. And the old churches in Montreal are not air conditioned LOL! But Montreal is a great city to visit.

Montreal and it's cathedrals, historic building are indeed beautiful.

We were up at Niagra Falls once, on the Canadian side, and the temps were in the high 90's. The locals were dying of the extreme heat and the tourists were all complaining as well.........not even seeing the great falls could cool anyone off.

Ottawa is also a beautiful city. Vermonters have connections to both Montreal and Ottawa..........