Family Tradition

My mother is a history major. She taught highschool history way back in the 70's. She didn't like teaching and didn't do it anymore after that. When I grew up I was always being given little impromptu history lessons which usually started with, "See Diana, years ago......."

One of the things that we often had around the house were books written about the daily habits of people who lived 'years ago'. I learned many interesting things from these books. For instance, did you know that in the dark ages no-one used silverware? There was no such thing as a fork. Everyone carried a knife and this is what they ate with. If you went to someones house you used your own knife.

In Holland, children did not sit at the table. They stood behind their parents chairs and were fed like little puppies. The lower-classes in London subsisted on a barley-based gruel. That was it! Hence, the life expectancy of 30. I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the idea.

So I picked up a book called "Inside the Victorian Home," the other day and it has been as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Here is an excerpt which will hopefully illustrate why I like and get a kick out of these books.

"For us, mice and rats are the first thought at the word "vermin"; for the Victorians it was bugs: blackbeetles, fleas, even crickets. If the struggle against them was not waged with commitment and constancy, they would "multiply till the kitchen flooor at night palpitates with a living carpet, and in time the family cockroach will make raids on the upper rooms, travelling along the line of hot water pipes...the beetles would collect in corners of the kitchen ceiling, and hanging to one another by their claws would form huge bunches or swarms like bees, towards evening and as night closed in, swarthy individuals would drop singly on to floor, or head, or food...........Mrs. Haweis did not object to rats and mice, which she thought were "nice, pretty, clever little things."

Okay, one more and I promise I'll stop!

"As soon as the water was hot, the sheets and other linens were taken out of their overnight soaking water, rinsed in hot water ladled out of the copper, and rubbed or beaten with a dolly or a possing stick." "The sheets were then wrung out, and the water was thrown away. A bar of soap--there were as yet no detergents--was shaved, cut into pieces, and dissolved in boiling water to form a jelly. The jelly was rubbed through the sheets. Then the water was added to transform the whole to a soapy mass, and the sheets were agitated again. More water--as hot as could be borne by the laundress--was added, the sheets were rubbed a third time. The water was thrown out, more was taken from the copper, and the items were put in their first rinse, then wrung out. They were then put in the copper itself, together with one teaspoon of soda to every two gallons of water and boiled for and hour and a half, to remove the soap thoroughtly. After the boiling the sheets were taken out, rinsed a third time in another tub of boiling water, and then a fourth in a final tub of cold water, which had had 'blue' put in it." "After the blue rinse, everything was wring out for a third and final time, and hung up to dry. Thus, the first--and simplest--load of laundry took one soaking, two washes, one boiling and four rinses:"