Reply #1: Thanks. I like how THK doesn't try to be who she isn't:

[beachmom]

TIME: Both of you have privileged lives. How do you keep in touch with what average Americans go through on a day-to-day basis?

EDWARDS: Yesterday I was shopping in Target, looking for the specials, like most average Americans. I think that you can have the tools of privilege without losing touch with regular lives. We started out, as Teresa did, with not the kind of means that we have today, and we haven't changed the way we live very drastically, except we live in a nicer house and we drive a nicer car. But we still try to not spend extravagantly. It is an enormous difference to have that economic safety net that most Americans don't have.

TIME: And of course on every wedding anniversary you dine at Wendy's, where you spent your first one. Mrs. Kerry, where do you and Senator Kerry spend your anniversaries?

HEINZ KERRY: In Nantucket, because that's where we got married. Normally just the two of us. This year we didn't. We spent it in Seattle. And the city was very warm to us.

I didn't answer that one question which she answered. What was it? It was this question here, about background, being well-off. People expect me to ride with angel's wings or something. But they don't expect me to do my own shopping, to cook, to take care of my kids, to make jams, to grow vegetables, to do all the things that I have always tried to do if I could. And I do.

TIME: Do you still do your own shopping?

HEINZ KERRY: Now I can't. I mean I could, but it would be such a fiasco at the Safeway. But until recently I always cooked. John is a good cook in some things, mostly desserts. He makes the best chocolate mousses and meringues. He takes pleasure in it. I thank goodness I grew up in a life that was rich in love, rich in order, rich in beauty, nature. Rich in the best ways a child's life should be rich--piano, music, books, stories, you name it. Good schools. So yes, I have a rich life that way. And did I ever go hungry? Not hungry. Did I ever do without things? Yes, I definitely did. It's all relative, of course, but when I was in Switzerland in college, my budget was $250 a month for everything, and I managed fine.

TIME: What did you have to do without?

HEINZ KERRY: For instance, one day a week I would not eat protein because I needed to buy a flower in the middle of winter. I would have to buy a rose or something that would take me to the outdoors. I ate simply. I lived the life of a student for 3 1/2 years. And I was happy. So I've been used to living within my budget and not to feel deprived because of it. And the other thing that I know, which is a great comfort to me, is how happy I can be, for instance, in Africa, in the bush, treating patients as I used to, helping my dad, sleeping in very clean but simple comfort, without any material appendages. I know I can be happy doing that.