“It's the families ? it's the relationships you build with them. We take care of a spot that's pretty sacred to them ? you become their family.”

“They were there to help, there weren't any families camping - I don't think we had any families from what I could tell.”

The thing that interests me most about family history is the gap between the things we think we know about our families and the realities.

To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family even exaggerations make perfect sense.

“This is a communiversity fall festival, our fifth year. We do this as part of giving back to the community. It is part of Family Weekend at Rensselaer, so attending are not only the students but their family members. We've got more than 1,500 family members here today.”

“The younger children are when you start this, the more it becomes part of what you do as a family. Over time, it becomes a haven within the family. The meal itself becomes symbolic of what a family does for its members: You nourish each other.”

“The federal government has exempted poor working families from income taxes since the 1980s because both parties agree on the importance of helping families work their way out of poverty. Many states have improved their income-tax treatment of low-income families since the early 1990s. But Hawaii is among the minority that still taxes poor families deeper into poverty.”

“Many of our families have had difficulty unraveling the red tape involved in accessing assistance. We'll work with these families to make sure they are aware of everything they're entitled to. We are committed to supporting Hale County and displaced families recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. With the support and technical assistance from HAC, we can make a difference for our rural families.”

Food for her is not food, it is terror, dignity, gratitude, vengeance, joyfulness, humiliation, religion, history, and, of course, love. As if the fruit she always offered us were picked from the destroyed brances of out family tree.

“I would not call it a very close contact. I'm occasionally in touch with his office. Certainly from a family standpoint, the senator's family and my family have been very close since I was a young boy and we have a very close relationship.”