Barbara recently celebrated her 72nd birthday. We met when she was 19, and once again we are the same age, although she looks a helluva lot younger than I do. Why is that?

Such is life in the exit lane.

We spent Thanksgiving with our oldest daughter and her family in Ashland, Wis., population 8,300, some 80 miles east of Duluth, Minn. At last look the median income was around $31,000, and a typical home might cost $65,000. Ten years ago, our daughter and her husband bought a 10-room fixer-upper on a very nice street, four blocks from Lake Superior, for $35,000. Fortunately her husband is a carpenter, and he fixed up the place and made a cozy home for their seven children. Three of those children have since graduated from Ashland High School and are now off on their own; the two girls are in college, and the oldest, a son, is married and has a daughter--our first great-grandchild. Four children are still at home, including a handicapped six-year-old.

Living in a small town has advantages. Typical travel time to work is 12 minutes. And neighbors are very friendly and caring.

Let me give you an example. Our oldest granddaughter is a junior in college in Minneapolis and, like most students, has piled up a bunch of student loans. About a month ago, an anonymous donor paid off her loans; we assume it was someone from her church in Ashland or one of their more affluent neighbors. Neighborly indeed.

Barbara and I have an "office" near Ashland, but that is getting ahead of the story. The Bad River Chippewa Band of Ojibwe Indians is located on a reservation five miles east of Ashland in the town of Odanah, which is also the tribal administrative and cultural center. Barbara and I have a special relationship with the Bad River Casino. We discovered the place several years ago when it was in a small log cabin. At the time, it was a welcome escape when the grandchildren started wearing us down. And it became the family joke that Nan and Papa had to go to the "office."

Over the years, the casino grew and added a hotel. But when we were at the "office" last year, there wasn't the usual crowd. Several of the blackjack tables were empty, and there weren't as many slots players. Turns out there are now bigger casinos on other tribal lands, casinos that attract top-name entertainers and have more glitz. Tribal warfare of a different sort.

How did two kids who went to Los Gatos High School end up raising a family in a small town on the banks of Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay? That's another story.