My, how times have changed. I remember visiting my grandmother at her ranch when I was a child while she and all my aunts and my mother (the daughter-in-law) were unpacking a trunk full of antique goodies that had arrived from the old family homestead in Kentucky. Out came an 1800s wedding dress and a man's suit -- each stitch hand done. Tiny white satin slippers that had never touched the ground because the bride had been carried to and from the carriage. Then a family Bible, candlesticks, a gun that had been carried in the Revolution and the War of 1812.
Finally at the bottom of the trunk were several handsome silver ladles and large spoons. My mother tried to get a closer look at them (probably to see if they were sterling or plate.) My grandmother wouldn't let her see them because of something engraved on them. My mother's curiosity would not be stifled, and finally my grandmother (by this time somewhat exasperated) said , "It just says these were made from melted down medals awarded for 'prize male cows.'"
My dear grandmother wouldn't even say the word 'bull' in front of the ladies because it wasn't proper -- they were male cows. I still have a letter she wrote me about my grandfather whom I never knew. In it she stressed that "He was a good man who never drank, never smoked, and never used foul language or took the Lord's name in vain."
Where have the people with high standards of behavior disappeared? Grandma had a hard life -- widowed with a farm to run during the Depression -- but she left her children and grandchildren with good character and golden standards.
BTW, I still have a handsome 1880s gold bracelet that she pulled out of that trunk and gave to me -- the only legacy that my family got. Nobody minded too much because it was broken. It has since been repaired, and I wear it on all special occasions and loan it to all brides in the family.
A pox on Chris matthews!