Penny For Your Thoughts By: Nancy Whitaker
We all have stories about the past and a lot of us believe that their decade was the best .
I love going back and reading about the Royals and some of their practices and this was not old sayings, they were a way of life..
Back in the 1500– 1700s, hygiene was not a top priority for anyone.
Some people believed that taking a bath would make you sick; others thought at least once a month wouldn’t harm you. This included the poor, the rich and The Royals.
It is said that Marie-Antoinette bathed once a month. Then the 17th century British King James I was said to never bathe his whole life causing the rooms he frequented to be filled with lice.
We think their practices were gross, but that’s what they believed, and made due with what they had at the time
Well we have come a long ways from those ancient times Thank God, we don’t have to stink, wear dirty clothes and die by age 30.
Well growing up in the 50s and 60s, I remember not having running water and we had an outhouse. I remember my mom and grandma packing in water, heating it on the stove and doing laundry in a wringer washing machine. But we kept ourselves clean and all our clothes smelled so good after hanging outside on a clothes line.
My grandma had her own beliefs and sayings and if granny said by it, it had to be true.
For instance, if you burnt your self grandmas remedy was to put butter on the burn. I have done this and people thought butter wasn’t a remedy, but to cook with and adorn corn on the cob.
We were told never to drink milk and eat fish at the same meal, or it could kill you.
Also another rule to live by was : Never hand anyone a fork or you and that person would get in a fight.
Then you never saw a cake or cookies being baked on a rainy day because it wouldn’t rise. I believed that when i was young, but now I don’t think it’s true.
I read that a lot of grandma’s sayings are fading away. Have you ever heard these?
I’ve got a Champagne appetite on a Kool-Aid budget. (I want more than I can afford.)
Well, butter my backside and call me a biscuit!.
You are as handy as a pocket on a shirt! (That’s mighty handy!)
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
You can’t get blood from a turnip! (Who would even try such?)
You’re as blind as a bat! (Bats are blind? Really?)
Up the creek without a paddle!
Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle! (Say what?)
Were you born in a barn?
Whew, saved by the bell!
You all are like two peas in a pod.
I don’t use these old sayings or practices as much as I used to but, I still won’t “ bake a cake on a rainy day;”
I don’t hand anyone a fork and I still butter up a burn.
Through the years we have all had different ways of life, taken a bath once a week in a big tub; wore a hat and gloves to church, carried in water from a well or used an out house.
I bet those old Royals would love our practices today.
How did you live during your decade? Do you still use homemade remedies or old sayings? Let me know and I’ll give you a Penny for your Thoughts.
