Word: ridgewood
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...most surprising news story in my lifetime is the Soviet Union's collapse. What is yours? - Ed Winters, Suffolk, N.Y. I was born in 1959 in Ridgewood, N.J., so if you think back, it's very hard to single out one thing in a lifetime of 50 years. We lost a very visible war in Vietnam. We won a very visible space race. Though the end of the Cold War and all it has wrought is probably as good an answer...
...RIDGEWOOD, N.J.—My grandfather built things. In a backyard somewhere in a low California valley, his treehouse subsumes a wimpy oak. The trunk seems to buckle underneath the weight of a wide staircase leading up to the habitable structure. But I imagine that this immemorial fixture of my childhood is now littered with alien toys, the once fresh carpet dank with spilled juice and the glass-paned windows smeared by the hands of gum-smacking children...
...family-meal crusaders offer lots of advice to parents seeking to recenter their household on the dinner table. Groups like Ready, Set, Relax!, based in Ridgewood, N.J., have dispensed hundreds of kits to towns from Kentucky to California, coaching communities on how to fight overscheduling and carve out family downtime. More schools are offering basic cooking instruction. It turns out that when kids help prepare a meal, they are much more likely to eat it, and it's a useful skill that seems to build self-esteem. Research on family meals does not explore whether it makes a difference...
Still, if the Ridgewood experience is any indication, taking back your time is going to take more effort than it would seem at first. Even the BaRosses have found it hard to slow down. David admits that leaving work early adds stress because it puts him under the gun to finish his undone tasks and new projects on time in order to avoid a poor performance evaluation. "I'd love to cut back," he says. "But I also want to maintain the lifestyle we have." Outside considerations are on Rochelle's mind too. A few weeks ago, she announced that...
Teenagers have been the most reluctant to slow down. A crammed schedule is a badge of honor at Ridgewood High, and Ready, Set, Relax! is considered kid stuff. "My friends and I don't feel overwhelmed," says Ethan Frenchman, a busy senior with pals on the varsity sports squads. "You just have to set up a schedule and stick to it." His classmate Marielle Woods says she would love a night off, but that doesn't fit in with her plans to get into a top college. Last year on Ready, Set, Relax! night, she drove to New York City...