Ended up using Andy Budd’s simple box method:

Create a gif for the background, the top, and the bottom of the box.
Then create the box thusly:

<div id=”box”>
<h2>Header</h2>
<p class=”content”>CONTENT GOES HERE</p>
</div>

#box — background is a y-repeating background (the main background)
#box h2 — background is the “TOP” background
p.content — background is bottom background

PROBLEM:
Nexting DIVS inside the “Content” area … it breaks up the box!
It looks like the DIV is sitting on TOP of the parent DIV, without the parent DIV extending around the “child” DIV.

GRrrrrrr!