Dowry or Brideprice? Ah, shucks, everyone pays!

In the old days - pick some date in history about which you know nothing - dowry was assumed. The father paid the groom , depending on your view of the world, for the expense of setting up a household with his daughter, or as a signing bonus for shifting the cost of supporting the girl off his household profit and loss statement. The nearest thing to it today is the help ($$) that the bride's father (traditionally) gives toward the ceremony. And I've already said, though we've had help from many quarters, we're not having a traditional wedding.

What I was doing last week could be called "brideprice." But then, I volunteered. I spent the week with TWIL's dad and stepmom. We cleared brush, moved neglected piles of firewood, cleared some more brush, then pulled up patio paving stones and put down some that were far nicer, not just where they were but over a an area so wide that it's now the place where we'll have cocktails after the wedding. So you could call it "gullible," "sucking up," or for the good-natured among you, "only fair," because much as I love them, I would have to be crazy to do what they're doing. We love the way they're crazy.

Now, we did have help: Chris Danielson and girlfriend Jess Franco were in town from Boulder CO. He was laying paving stone, too, thank god. Another wedding guest and long-time colleague of Lee's, Peter Mear, was also hard at work. Mike Ferro, brother in law and husband of Ellen (sister), also spent 2/3 of a day humping stone like a Trojan (even though the cliches are right, it sounds wrong, doesn't it?).

Lee, Jean Roberts, Alan Betz (brother in law), and Karen Betz (sister). Apologies all around for this snapshot. Really, it's the best of the lot.

On Friday night, my sister Karen, her husband Alan, and their daughter Katherine came to a barbeque with my mom, Jean, and dad, Dave.