Last month’s birth-color formula was missing two numbers and, since this made it difficult finding your number, I’ll repeat the formula:

• Birth Year 1930 = 1+9+3+0=13=(1+3)=4
• Birth Month 12= (1+2)=3
• Birthday 13 = (1+3)= 4
• Add the results: 4+3+4=11=(1+1)=2

Colors by number are: 1-Red, 2-Orange, 3-Yellow, 4-Green, 5-Blue, 6-Indigo, 7-Violet, 8-Pink and pastels, 9-all other colors. Remember: your "birth" color may not be your favorite color. It does, however, influence the temperament and destiny of your life just as your Zodiac sign is an influence.

In 1935 the Bureau of Rural Life of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers held its annual convention in Denver, Colorado. Among other items discussed, the problem with "wayward" youth was uppermost. The Congress urged a return of the "Quilting Party" as a curb on modern youth. (Explain that again?)

Lowell, Massachusetts, was home to one of the first textile mills in America. According to Harriet Robinson in Loom and Spindle, the first calico printed in Lowell had a madder background and cost 30 cents a yard.

The madder color was the product of a cow yard close to the print works. In the madder style of dyeing fabric, the woven cloth is first printed with a thickened mordant (a substance to fix or set dye color.) It was dried for two to three days to become insolubly attached to the cloth.

The third step was called "dunging." The printed cloth was run through a solution of cow dung and water. This would remove the unattached mordant and the thickening agent. A substitute for cow dung was invented in 1839, so cow yards and calico factories did not have to be near each other.