Hi, bbc: Wow, a message from the British Broadcasting Company! Part of the problem of monikers is that I'm never quite sure who I'm talking to..

I have a square cast iron skillet (but without a divider,) that I picked up many years ago for a couple of bucks at a tag sale, and it's my favorite frying pan. Your message brought back memories of my grandparents on my Father's side... which is what is so great about this thread. My Grandfather was a tinsmith in Denmark and I've been told, worked on some great cathedrals there. I assume that the cathedrals weren't tin, but I'm sure there was tin working to be done on them. He quickly rose to being foreman of the shop. He came over to this country in his late teens or early twenties, and met my Grandmother in the choir of a church in a Danish community in Wisconsin. My Grandmother came over as a maid, working for the Diamond family, who started Diamond match. At that time, it was the major match company and the family was extremely wealthy. I wrote a song about my grandparents and the chorus echoes what you've said about your greatest inheritances being your faith and values.

"Grandpa was a tinsmith, the foreman of the shop
Grandma worked for Diamonds, she started at the top
And even though the dreams they had, never quite came true
They passed them on to Daddy, and to me when he was through"

Jerry