Hi,
Thanks for posting. I will look for this book as my husband and I have
enjoyed our visits to the Blue Ridge area.
Lona
Monroe, Louisiana
-----Original Message-----
From: Sharon Domer
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 11:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] About bedcovers... was inventory
Carole-
You are right on the mark with your analysis of people then and now.
Sharon Shaffer Domer
From: Carole D. Bryant <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 3:57 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] About bedcovers... was inventory
"Hollow Folk" ! I reckon those folk were anything but "hollow" ! Such
living most often results in solid personal character -- the kind of people
some of us would like to have for neighbors ! ! ! Kind and generous,
honest
and faithful, God-fearing and spiritually strong.
I know my comment is a bit "off subject," but I couldn't resist. The term
just jumped out at me. There are exceptions, of course, but generally our
"soft living" today is producing an unkind and greedy, deceitful and
incompetent, immoral and spiritually dead society ! Give me the old
"hollow
folk" ANY day !
Carole D. Bryant
In a message dated 11/18/2012 3:19:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Carolyn, what a nice response. Many of my kin came to the Shenandoah
Valley in the 1730s. I can't imagine how tough the conditions were while
they tried to put up a cabin. I look at how spoiled I am (can't be too
warm or too cool) and wonder how, genetically, my line survived.
Your comments reminded me of a book I read ...Hollow Folk by Mandel Sherman
and Thomas R. Henry. It was written in 1933 and tells of life in the
hollows on the Blue Ridge Mountains. From the tone of your email....I
think you may enjoy it.
Regards,
Madaline
On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 10:11 AM, Carolyn Bruce <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Quantities of blankets, quilts, and coverlids (a.k.a. counterpanes or
> "countypins") were necessary in homes in which there was no central
heat...
> and if the fire went out, no heat at all. Most homes were of wood and had
> no insulating materials. In addition, kinfolks might come to stay awhile,
> often around the holidays... maybe with numerous children, which would
> require providing pallets or some form of bedding to be able to sleep
> everyone comfortably. Straw or corn shucks would be stuffed into "straw
> ticks" which made rudimentary mattresses that were laid on the floor to
> accommodate visitors, especially young un's.
>
> My mother told of growing up in a house with all her brothers and
sisters
> (there were ten) at home at one time, sharing beds among them, two or
three
> in a bed. There were two upstairs bedrooms, one for the boys and one for
> the girls... but come fall of the year, teachers often boarded at their
> house, and the boys were pushed out into an attic space. Cold wouldn't
even
> come close to describing the conditions. At times it was truly freezing
in
> the bedrooms and they would have to break ice on top of the water in the
> wash bowl and ewer to wash their faces when they arose.
>
> In the time frame of your "wagoner", it was even colder than in the 20th
> century, at least in the U.S. and Europe. Around 1700, it was so cold in
> the area known as Alsace-Lorraine, it is said that birds froze in flight
> and fell from the sky. Heavy snows fell in most of Europe, and canals and
> streams froze. Remember Hans Brinker, the poor boy (and his sister) who
> competed in the traditional speed-skating race from one town to the next
on
> the frozen canal? And all those snowy Currier and Ives prints from that
> period? That was during a centuries-long dip in temperatures that started
> in the early 1300s and ended about the mid-1800s... called the "Little
Ice
> Age". So your wagoner would have been most appreciative of having a large
> stockpile of warm blankets and other bedcovers, as would most of his
> neighbors.
>
> Thank goodness for central heat.
>
> Carolyn
>
> --
> Carolyn HALE BRUCE
> Virginia Beach, VA
>
>
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