Along those lines, here’s an excerpt from a good letter from Stuart in Indiana:

First, I am glad your A&C bungalow has turned out so well. However, many of us burb dwellers started out in an old neighborhood and choose (after careful) deliberation to move. Our first house was a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired mid-century built house built in an old urban neighborhood. It was also a nightmare. After buying it we discovered all sorts of problems which in fixing took away from family time. Now with four boys I thank God I left the fixer upper behind and can devote my time to other things. Maybe, as my boys get older we might venture back that direction.

Please don't paint the suburbs with such a broad brush. Not all suburban neighborhoods or towns are full of shoddy Mcmansions as you suggest. Our new neighborhood sports many of the features your seasoned neighborhood has: narrow streets, houses built close together, porches, sidewalks, etc. It also features options that I think are an improvement over some of the older neighborhoods, such as dead end cul-de-sacs that keep out speeding teenagers and cruisers. My neighborhood also has public walking and biking trails, public green spaces, fishing ponds (that my kids and I love), a basketball court, and many other features. In short, it was built with family activities in mind.

In fact, I just may be lucky, but I'd compare my little suburban neighborhood to any other neighborhood. Just last night on an unseasonably warm March night for our part of the country (it hit 70), one neighbor was out on his driveway practicing with his bluegrass band, a group of boys were playing kick ball in the cul-de-sack, several of us were washing our cars or cleaning out our garages, and eventually a few beers (micros even) were popped amongst the adults while we talked about NCAA seeding.

I too am a small business owner. After a stint as a lawyer, I got into the retail wine business and love it. It pains me to see so much of the wine business has gone global. You might be surprised to know how many of those interesting little wines you find are actually slick packaging by multinational wine companies trying to hide behind the aura of the little old family vineyard. (Ever notice the recent trend of what we call critter wines....Yellow Tail, Dog House, 3 Blind Moose, etc.)

Last year I was talking to the son of a California family vineyard owner. He was telling me that multinationals had bid up the price of vineyard land in his area such that his family's vineyards were worth a hundred million dollars on the open market. His vineyard and winery only grossed about $10 million a year. Yet, his family was so devoted to the art and craft of wine making, from the soil to the bottle if you will, that none of them were inclined to sell.

In fact, your book has given me a business idea. We are currently building a website to sell our wares over the net. I think I am going to devote a whole section on the site to family and small business wine producers — producers that see value in the practice of their craft and not just the bottom line.