Hi, folks--just finished reading the July/Aug. 2007 copy of The SatEvePost and enjoyed it as usual, but particularly "On Pins & Needles ..." by Michelle Slatalla. I personally have never liked to sew, and the only sewing I do now is when some article of clothing needs the legs hemmed up.

When I was going to what was at the time called junior high (a very public school in Pasadena, Texas), all the girls had to take sewing and cooking and the boys were shoved into shop and auto mechanics. I was a tomboy from the word go.

I absolutely refused to go to sewing/cooking, so was ordered to the principal's office, where I sat in a chair across from his desk for the duration of the class. I stared at the poor man, and occasionally he'd look up from his paperwork at me and shake his head.

This cat-and-mouse game went on for the better part of a week, at the end of which we struck a deal. I took six weeks of sewing/cooking (which was a total disaster) and got to take shop the second six weeks, during which I made a little hang-on-the wall image of Uncle Sam (I still have it).

I guess it does pay to compromise occasionally. Very judicially, of course.