Have you discovered why this was
done? I recall my mother being shocked that her Concuna (she & my
aunt are married to brothers) bathed her only daughter in cold water,
so that she would learn the "hard" life of a woman. I'm glad that my
mother didn't agree with this treatment or child abuse. I wonder if
this is the reason your ancestors did this? By the way, my tia is
descended from the Martin del Campos.
Irma
this was sent to me by Maria Gutierrez-Uhlenburg. I introduce it to the
group to see if anyone had things they heard of through oral history
that might have been practiced in our target area of study. Let's open
it even further to say have you heard any good stories of some of our
customs?
In the story I send to the group awhile back called "Muchacha" about my
Great Grandmother Antonia Santa Maria and my grandmother Virginia Diaz
I can't help but remember that when my grandmother was born the story
went that my GG Grandmother Andrea Torres ordered that two tinas of
water be prepared when my grandmother was born. One was to have nice
toasty warm water in case the child was a boy and the other was to be
cold water in case it was a girl. Grandma Virginia got the Cold water.
what stories or customs have you heard from your relatives coming out
of Jalisco, Zacatecas, and or Aguascalientes???
bring on the oral history.
thanks Maria,
joseph
-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: |
Some interesting History |
| Date: |
Sun, 27 Feb 2005 11:39:19 -0800 |
| From: |
Maria/Mark Uhlenburg <Uhlenburg@...> |
| To: |
PUENTES, Joseph <makas@...> |
Joseph,
I thought this might be a little
interesting to you.
Maria Gutierrez-Uhlenburg
WANT TO GO BACK IN TIME, 500 YEARS?
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the
water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things
used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:
These are interesting...
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting
to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the
house
had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and
men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies.
By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the
cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it
rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and off
the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This
posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings
could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and
a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how
canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would
get slippery in the winter when wet , so they spread thresh (straw)
on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they
kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all
start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway.
Hence the saying a "thresh hold."
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that
always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things
to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat.
They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get
cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had
food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme:
"Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine
days old."
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They
would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around
and "chew the fat."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content
caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning
death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years
or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of
the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper
crust."
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking
along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.
They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the
family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they
would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake."
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of
places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the
bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these
coffins,
1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and
they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a
string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up
through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out
in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the
bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a
"dead ringer."
And that's the truth... Now , whoever said that History was
boring ! ! !
by Date 
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