"Were in not for a web-footed rodent and a haberdashery fad in eighteenth-century Europe, Minnesota might be a Canadian province today. The beaver, almost as much as the horse, helped shape the course of early American history. Some Mayflower colonists paid their passage with beaver pelts; and a good fur could bring an Indian three steel knives or a five-foot stack could bring a musket. But even more influential were the trappers and fur traders penetrating the great Northern wilderness between the Mississippi River and the Rocky mountains, since it was their presence that helped hold the Near West against British expansion from the North; and it was their explorations that opened the heart of the nation to white settlement. These men, by making pelts the currency of the wilds, laid the base for a new economy that quickly overwhelmed the old. And all because European men of mode simply had to wear a beaver hat."


About five years ago, before the housing market was really bad, my parents decided to sell our house in North Bend, because we were in debt over our heads. We had been trying for quite awhile, but just when all hope had seemed lost, a couple from California with one daughter, had left us with the impression they'd liked it. A few months later, they bought it. All was good, and we were happy. We were happy until my step dad's boss decided to move him up to work in Eugene because the company up there was needing great help. He was gone for nights on end sometimes because we couldn't spend a lot of money on gas all the time. My mom and dad later discussed about us just moving up there. We moved. We moved away from all our family and friends. We hardly see them, and I hardly see my best friend anymore. if we hadn't have moved, I'd still have my best friend.