Did you know that middle Georgia was the American frontier in the early 1700s? To keep the wild animals from overwhelming them in the cold winter, settlers had to burn wild pine knots in the yards. Among the wild animals in Jackson County they had to watch out for was a multitude of panthers!
Photo credit: View of Savannah as it stood on 29th of March 1734, drawn by Peter Gordon Georgia Historical Society Map Collection, MS1361-MP
A Legend
One legend from that time period is that of the Wog. The Creek Natives believed this was a large, black, wolf-like animal. Early settlers told the children if they were not good and didn’t go to sleep at night, the wog would put its tongue between the chinks in the log cabins and get them.
In Denise’s book, A Counterfeit Betrothal, the female protagonist Esther is a natural healer. She uses natural herbs to treat wounds and illnesses. Many of the Native Americans at that time lived using the natural resources, including herbs, berries, and fish. One dish developed by early settlers was called salat—like our modern day salad. This was a dish made mostly of greens and herbs, such as dandelions.
About Our Guest
Denise writes historical and contemporary romance and romantic suspense mostly set in her home state of Georgia. She has authored a dozen traditionally published novels and a number of novellas. A freelance fiction editor, wife, and a mother of two daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.
For today’s Pinch of the Past, I am dragging you all along to take a peek at one of my absolute favorite topics–the defense of a castle! Our listeners might be thankful KyLee’s here to rein me in if I get carried away…
The Walls
The thing I love about castles is how every detail was important for defense. As decades of siege warfare passed, architects and designers learned to use even the smallest things to their advantage to make a castle as defensible as possible.
The first and most obvious defense for a castle was, of course, its massive walls. Their size varied depending on the castle, but to give us an idea, a castle built in Wales in the late 13th century had an outer wall 20 feet high and 8 feet thick. The inner wall was 15 feet taller and 4 feet thicker, with its towers soaring to 50 feet.
I didn’t think much about the outer wall being shorter. I assumed it would just be too expensive to build two walls 35 feet high. But the height difference meant that both walls could be used for defense at the same time. While defenders on the outer walls were fighting the attacking army, defenders on the inner wall could be shooting at the enemy right over the heads of their comrades below.
Near the base, the walls sloped outward slightly, making them even thicker. This made the walls stronger, of course, but it also served another purpose that I’ll share in a moment.
Hoardings
At the top of the walls and towers most castles sport a notched edge called crenelation. It’s pretty well known that these scallops, called merlons, provided a place for defenders to hide as they shot between them at the attackers below.
But since the castle often had advance warning that an army was coming, they would build wooden balconies, called hoardings, that jutted out a few feet from the top of the walls. These hoardings had roofs which were covered in animal skins to make them more resistant to flaming arrows. This way, when the attackers tried to scale the walls or use a battering ram, the defenders could hurl boulders, boiling oil, melted lead, or arrows straight down through the floor of the hoardings.
And you remember the sloping base at the bottom of the wall? That provided a surface for falling projectiles to hit and bounce toward the attackers. They really took advantage of every feature.
Curved Towers
So the last thing we’ll mention is the gorgeous curved towers you see on some castles. One of the tactics for breaching castle walls involved digging a tunnel under them to try to make them collapse. Digging under a square corner was the best place–but round towers have no corners, so it would basically be like undermining the middle of a straight wall.
Speaking of curved towers, that brings me to the quintessential feature of a fairytale castle–the spiral staircase. In a real castle, the stairs always spiral clockwise as you ascend. This means that anyone who breached the outer wall and tried to climb the staircase to seize a tower had to climb with his swordhand next to the middle shaft of the staircase. Any defenders inside could descend with their swordhand toward the outer wall of the staircase, giving them a lot more room to maneuver their weapon. Something as simple as the direction of the stairs was turned to the defenders’ advantage.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this small tour of a castle at war! Maybe next time we’ll talk about a castle at peace…or something like that.
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815 – 1852)
On today’s Pinch of the Past we will be looking at an extraordinary woman before her time. Ada Lovelace, considered the first computer programmer, was the daughter of Lord Byron and the most wealthy woman of the 1800s.
Childhood
A sketch of young Ada, who was noticeably gifted by her teachers and mentors. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Born in England on December 10, 1815, she was the daughter of the famous poet Lord George Byron and his wife, Lady Anne Byron. She was Byron’s only legitimate child, and he left her and her mother weeks after she was born. He actually commemorated parting from her in his poem titled “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” saying,
“Is thy face like thy mother’s my fair child! ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart?”
Sadly, Lord Byron died when Ada was nine. In an effort to keep her from developing Lord Byron’s perceived insanity, and possibly out of spite, Lady Byron encouraged her daughter’s interest in mathematics and logic.
Ada was mentored by Charles Babbage who is known as “the father of computers”. He invented the Difference Engine, an early version of the calculator.
Even after marrying William King, the Earl of Lovelace, and having three children, Ada continued her work with Babbage. He asked her to interpret his instructions for the Analytical Engine in French. Ada did so, adding her additional notes and signing them A. A. L.
Ada understood that the machine worked with letters and codes, not just as a calculator using numbers, but also letters which is basically computer programming.
Her notes would later be used by Alan Turing who invented the first modern computer in the 1940s. In 1979, the U.S. Department of Defense named a programming language Ada in her honor.
She was a uniquely talented person. Ada often used metaphors to describe scientific theories and also used her unique talents as a poet to interpret and create a pattern-based language for mathematical insights. When describing the Analytical Engine she said it “weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.”
Later life
Photograph by IanDagnall Computing / Alamy
Ada only lived to be 37. She suffered from asthma and digestive problems. Like many people at that time, she used opium-based painkillers and, unfortunately, developed an addiction. It is unknown if she was ever in remission. She died of uterine cancer in London in the year 1852.
No matter how short her life, Ada is an example of a woman who used every opportunity to pursue what she loved. Despite suffering from health problems throughout her life, she contributed to the advancement of our society’s technology.
A Sunday Afternoon in a Gin Palace. Illustration for The Graphic, 1879.
In the end of the 19th century, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children produced a report on the maltreatment of children. To exhibit their findings they used an imaginary city of 500,000 people of various classes and occupations. 1/3 were adult and 2/3 were children. They concluded that 50% of the streets were inhabited by drunkards and that 50% of cruelty and crime were directly connected to drink.
At the time alcohol affected every part of the family unit. In 1899 a Medical officer in Liverpool conducted a survey to understand more fully the effect of mother’s drinking during pregnancy. He surveyed women in prisons and found that of 600 children, 335 died before the age of 2 (this included stillborn babies.
To break this down a little, 23.9 % of children born to sober mothers died before the age of two against the 55.2% of children who were born to inebriated mothers.
The Band of Hope grew from its humble beginning in 1847. By 1897 they had 3,238,323 members. They were reaching children whose lives were directly affected by alcohol. According to History of Hope UK (formerly the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union, “Generally, the conditions for children at that time were wretched and alcohol misuse was often implicated – for example in children with irregular school attendance, children becoming street traders, physical harm to children and sometimes death. It was in this environment that the Band of Hope was working.”
Another quote:
“To children The Band of Hope must have been the one bright spot of the week, bearing in mind the drab conditions of the times when the public house was the only place of ‘good cheer’ in so many communities. By any standards with which the success or failure of a movement may be judged, the Band of Hope has to be reckoned as a success, almost in a class of its own. What other youth movement in the United Kingdom has ever had a membership of over 3 million?” (quote from Drink in Great Britain, 1900-1979 Williams\Brake).
Important Acts the Band of Hope helped to bring into effect were:
In 1889 and 1894 the Cruelty to Children Acts established the right of the nation to give children the rights their parents had denied them.
In 1901 the Intoxicating liquors (Sale to Children) Act was passed which prevented the sale of intoxicating liquors to children under 14, except in corked and sealed containers.
In 1909 another Act excluded children from such parts of licensed premises where consumption of liquor was the chief feature. Newspapers reported that this act had had a dramatic effect in almost all public houses and children were no longer to be seen with parents in the bars.
From 1909 onwards the school syllabus included education on alcohol, its problems etc. Originally this included the promotion of ‘temperance’. The misuse of alcohol was thought to relate to the misuse of food. The educational approach today relates it to the misuse of drugs.
Despite the bleak reminders of our fallen world, it’s encouraging to see that the same issues of addiction we see today were experienced and also responded to in the past. When I look at the missionaries, advocates for protecting children, and even temperance leagues throughout history I am deeply encouraged that God did and still does use finite people in small ways to effect infinite change.
You can find a 1901 footage of the Band of Hope here
There is nothing new under the sun. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard my dad say that over the years. I guess I should not have been surprised then when I ran across a temperance association that educated children(!) about the dangers of drugs and alcohol in the 1800s. Like our modern-day D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education.)
It All Started with an Alcoholic Sunday School Teacher
In June of 1847, Reverend Jabez Tunnicliff visited a young man who was dying of alcoholism. The young man had previously been a Sunday school teacher. He told the reverend, “I want you, if you think it worthwhile to say anything about me when I’m gone, to warn young men against the first glass.”
Rev. Tunnicliff reported this to the Leeds Temperance Society. In August of that same year, they invited Mrs. Ann Jane Carlile to speak about alcoholism to local day schools, Sunday schools, and women’s groups. Some children at these events took pledges not to drink.
In November 1847 the first Band of Hope meeting took place in Leeds. 300 children, 16 and younger, attended and 200 chose to sign a pledge to abstain. The rest had already done so.
Their pledge was, “I, the undersigned, do agree that I will not use intoxicating liquors as a beverage.”
In 1855 the UK Band of Hope Union was formed as many different children’s recreational organizations joined together. They did more than just sign packs to not drink. They also taught about Christianity and the problems associated with drinking. The idea was to inspire children to live healthy, alcohol-free lives.
What did they do?
They produced children’s hymns, pamphlets, and “magic lantern slide shows” to support the group. In addition to sending qualified medical men to schools to speak about the dangers of alcohol and drugs, they also held pageants, festivals, and competitions.
In 1897, Queen Victoria became a patron of The Band of Hope. As a result, many sermons on temperance were preached all over the UK. The archbishop of Canterbury and Dublin headed this movement. While preaching at St. Pauls’ Cathedral, the Arch Bishop of Canterbury said,
“ The old command was ‘do”; the teaching of Christ is ‘be’. The Christian life should be one of ceaseless aspirations towards higher and better things. When an improved mode of life is seen it should be striven for, and it is a sin to neglect any means of attaining it.”
Whew, those are some high expectations. Still, so true. “…the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41 – KJV
From a legendary Christian bishop to an elf driving flying reindeer across the sky, Saint Nicholas has certainly come a long way. Today we’re taking a look at some of the stops along this wild journey to international fame.
Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra
Nicholas of Myra is believed to be the historical source of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, sailors, students, teachers, and merchants. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons
Little is known about the actual man who became the Catholic St. Nicholas. He was the bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey. At the Council of Nicaea, he famously lost his temper and slapped another bishop in the face for arguing that Christ was not equal with God. But most details about his life are fuzzy.
Legend has it that St. Nicholas was a generous man, giving all of his inheritance to the poor. One story tells of a poor man who was on the verge of selling his three daughters into slavery as he could not provide dowries for them to marry. St. Nicholas, using a window to preserve his anonymity, tossed bags of gold into the house at night. Supposedly they landed in the girls’ stockings or shoes, which were drying before the fire.
In Germany
AUSTRIA – JANUARY 01: Christmas party 1820 with Santa Claus. In: memory book for Baumann family, a Viennese merchant family.
St. Nicholas Day is December sixth, the anniversary of St. Nicholas’s death, and in medieval Germany, that was the only day near Christmastime when gifts were exchanged. St. Nicholas supposedly came bringing gifts for good children, who left their shoes by the door or window the night of December 5th and woke to find them filled with goodies.
But St. Nicholas was often accompanied by a darker, monstrous creature, known by many names, one of them being the Krampas. The horned Krampas went so far as to whip naughty children with switches. In Alpine regions, the Krampas has been toned down but is still part of the traditional Christmas festivities today.
In the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, St. Nicholas was known as Sinterklaas. Impersonators dressed up in red bishop’s costumes, and small markets sprang up around St. Nicholas Day specifically to sell small toys and treats to fill children’s shoes.
During the Reformation, the celebration of Catholic saints became unpopular, and the angelic Christ-child, or das Christkindl in German, was promoted as the bringer of gifts to children. The word Christkindl eventually Anglicized into Kris Kringle.
In England
‘Merry Christmas’, Kenny Meadows, Illustrated London News, 25 December 1847.
In England the character of Father Christmas dates back to the 1400’s, however he was not representative of a particular person but more an embodiment of Christmas festivities. He gave no gifts, but supposedly presided over Christmas festivities, delighting in the special food and drink and merriment. He might be known as “Lord of Christmas” or “Prince Christmas” and often condoned rowdy celebration.
Scholars say the Ghost of Christmas Present who visited Scrooge was actually a close likeness to the “Father Christmas” of the time.
In America
‘Santa Claus in Camp’ by Thomas Nast, from Harper’s Weekly, 3 Jan 1863.
It was in America where the modern Santa Claus emerged. In 1809, Dutch families still told tales of St. Nicholas on December sixth. Supposedly, he flew over the city in a wagon and climbed down chimneys to deliver gifts.
In 1821, an anonymous poem entitled, “Old Santeclaus with Great Delight,” gave Santa his red coat and reindeer, and moved his visit to Christmas Eve. In 1823, Clement Clark Moore brought us the poem now known as “The Night Before Christmas,” giving Santa most of the features we know him for today.
In the 1880s, Victorian England was ready for a more family-oriented Christmas celebration, and the American Santa Claus stepped up to merge with Father Christmas into a benevolent red-coated grandfather bringing gifts for the children.
But it was during the world wars when American soldiers brought the gift-giving Santa Claus across Europe and even to Japan. Dressed in Santa costumes, they gave gifts to local children in the war-torn countries at Christmastime, forever imprinting the “jolly old elf” on the hearts of people who had never heard of him.
Perhaps the only thing that has lasted from the real St. Nicholas to the Santa Claus of today is his generosity in giving to those in need. And that, my friends, is truly at the heart of what God did on Christmas Day.
Sarah Josepha Hale painted by James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889) – Richard’s Free Library, Newport, New Hampshire
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) was the daughter of a Revolutionary War officer and a native of Newport, New Hampshire. She was born to Captain Gordon Buell and Martha Whittlesay Buell who believed in equal education for their daughter.
Once she was grown, she married and had 5 children, but in 1822 her husband died. After that, she opened a milliner’s shop but writing was her passion.
She published a book of poems with the support of her husband’s Freemason lodge in 1823. Her first novel, Northwood, was an anti-slavery work that appeared in 1827 and established her literary reputation. Upon seeing her work, the owner of the Ladies’ Magazine asked her to work as the editor.
In 1837 this magazine was bought by a new owner and was renamed the Godey’s Ladies’ Book. Sarah remained as editor for another thirty years.
Supporting Others
Sarah also used her platform to support the abolishment of slavery and, later, colonization (freeing African Americans and sending them to Africa). She was a strong supporter of female education and even helped establish Vassar College.
Sarah established the Seaman’s Aid Society in 1833. They provided jobs for the families of deceased seamen in Boston’s North End. They also opened a day nursery and an industrial school for seamen’s daughters called the Mariners House.
In addition to these accomplishments, Sarah was active in preserving national places like Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home in Virginia, and funded a Bunker Hill Monument project.
“Sarah Josepha Hale, the women’s fundraising coordinator, stepped onto her Ladies’ Magazine public platform and campaigned for women to contribute $1. Her stance was strongly criticized in newspapers that favored men only to raise Monument funds. By 1840, the Ladies’ Fund amounted to only $2,937.90.” ~ The Bunker Hill Monument Fair of September 1840 Boston National Historical Park
Other Facts about Sarah
What does “Mary had a Little Lamb” and Thanksgiving have in common? Sarah J. Hale. She is often referred to as the Godmother (or mother) of Thanksgiving. At the time, Native Americans in North America had harvest festivals and colonists had services of thanksgiving, but the tradition was only rooted in what is now the northeastern part of the country. Seeing that Thanksgiving was still celebrated in the north but not the south or the territories in the West, Sarah was concerned the tradition would eventually die. She began writing presidents in 1844. She wrote to presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, and finally Lincoln in 1863. She urged him in an editorial to make the 3rd Thursday of November a national day of thanksgiving to “offer to God our tribute of joy and gratitude for the blessings of the year.” Lincoln supported legislation to make “A National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”
I love teaching my children and students about Sarah J. Hale. Although she was a modest woman who is often overlooked in history, the differences she made in our country are precious. We could all learn from Sarah’s example of effecting a positive change in the world today.
Homeless men coming for shelter in 19th century London. (Credit: Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)
Anyone slightly familiar with British and American history has heard of the infamous poorhouse or workhouse. These municipal institutions generally provided the barest possible food and shelter to the elderly, disabled, and very poor, in exchange for whatever work the person could provide. They were designed to make poverty as unbearable as possible in an effort to keep people working rather than relying on the poorhouse.
Today we look at a few jobs people turned to as a last resort to keep themselves out of the poorhouse.
Slop Shop Sewing and Shoebinding
Figure 13: A tailor’s shop as it appeared in a 1771 edition of Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedie. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection.
In the 1700’s in America, poor widows with young children couldn’t exactly leave their little rooms to go work. So clothing shops found a way to bring the work to them.
In port towns, sailors were constantly arriving in town and staying only a day or two, but they needed supplies and new clothing. They hadn’t the time or money for tailored clothes, so shops began selling ready-made “slops,” which was the term for the clothing sailors wore.
For extremely low pay, shops sent garment pieces to the widows, who worked 16-hour days every day sewing the pieces together. The garments were returned to the shops, finished up by a professional, and sold cheaply.
Shoes were done in a similar way. Leather pieces were cut and sent to the widows to be sewn together to make the shoes’ uppers, then a professional added the soles back at the shop.
The wage for both slop shop sewing and shoebinding was so low that most widows couldn’t really survive on their earnings. But it might keep them out of the poorhouse long enough for the children to reach earning age.
Scavenging
East London Mudlarks
Children as young as four or five could be taught to scavenge, which was the eighteenth-century version of a recycling program.
Trash in the cities was dumped in the streets, often in large piles on the corners. Cats, dogs, and pigs that ran loose would root through the trash to find scraps of food.
People of all ages would sort through the refuse looking for things like scraps of cloth that could be sold to the paper-makers, bits of metal that a metalsmith would melt down to make tin soldiers, pieces of bone for the bakers, scraps of leather that a cobbler could patch together to make shoes for poor people.
So many things could be resold, and it earned a little something that might contribute to the family income or keep a person off the streets at night.
During the 1700’s, gray squirrels and flying squirrels were a popular pet for wealthy American children, so supplying them was a decent-paying job.
Boys and young men climbed trees in the woods and collected baby gray squirrels from their nests, then sold them in the marketplace.
Benjamin Franklin, while visiting England, actually wrote to his wife and asked her to buy some baby squirrels and ship them to him so he could give them as gifts to the children of the family hosting him.
Other than the fact that small teeth probably bit your fingers with some regularity, this job had just one drawback–it was seasonal. Twice a year you could collect baby squirrels, but the rest of the time, you’d need a fallback.
These three jobs just scratch the surface of the low-paying–and often disgusting–jobs people undertook to make ends meet. Kind of gives me a new appreciation for my less-than-exciting office job!
The practice of medicine is a fascinating–and sometimes disturbing–subject of history. Today we look at just a few weird practices people hoped would cure them of illness and injury.
Trepanning
Trephine drills illustrated in Ambrose Parey, The workes of that famous chirurgion Ambrose Parey. Published London, 1634.
What would you imagine to be the surgery found earliest in the archeological record?
Dating back to prehistoric times, trepanning or trephination is the practice of boring or scraping holes in the human skull. Archeologists have found evidence of trepanning all over the world–China, South America, Europe–and in men, women, and children. While it sounds crude, it was actually a delicate process. Ideally, the surgeon bored only through the skull itself, exposing the tissue underneath but not actually cutting into the meninges or blood vessels surrounding the brain.
Roman writer Galen acknowledged the danger of the process, stating that too much pressure accidentally applied to the meninges would render the person unconscious or paralyzed.
In spite of the risks, trepanning was used to treat head trauma for thousands of years. It aided in removing bone fragments from a skull bashed by a weapon or a fall. It relieved the pressure of subdural bleeding. During the Middle Ages, it was a treatment for severe headaches and migraines, and even mental illness.
While we may wonder why people attempted this with only handheld iron or stone tools, the survival rate of patients was actually quite high, many healing and living years after the treatment. Some skulls found in France, dating back to approximately 6500 B.C., show patients who had the operation at some point, healed, and eventually underwent it again later in life.
When the bubonic plague, or Black Death, swept Europe, many bizarre and sometimes horrifying treatments arose–none of which were successful. A bacterial infection that infects the lymph nodes, bubonic plague is treated with antibiotics today. In fourteenth century Europe, faced with a disease that could kill within 12-72 hours of the symptoms’ onset, one doctor wrote: “Instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick.” They just had no clue how to prevent transmission or to treat their patients.
One treatment called for killing a snake and chopping it up in pieces. The poultice was then smeared over the swollen buboes or boils. The reasoning was that snakes were evil, and evil is drawn to evil. The evil in the snake was supposed to draw the evil disease out of the person’s body.
Woman with Unicorn/Saint Justine/Personification of Chastity.” ca. 1510
Magical cure-alls were also popular medicine in medieval Europe. One such substance was the horn of a unicorn.
According to mythology, only a pure maiden could subdue a unicorn, so its horn–known as alicorn–was very rare and expensive.
Ground into powder and mixed into food or drink, alicorn was a reputable treatment for any illness–it was even tried for the Black Death.
While the existence of unicorns was accepted in ancient and medieval times, scholars today think the tusk of a narwhal or the horn of a rhinoceros may have been the actual source of alicorn.
We finish with a practice still common today–acupuncture.
Originating in ancient China about 3000 years ago, the first thorough documentation of acupuncture comes from The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, a book from around 100 B.C. Acupuncture is based on the theory that a vital life force called Qi (chee) flows along pathways in the human body. The strategic piercing of the skin with very thin needles was thought to regulate and balance the flow of Qi.
While it sounds very mystical, the practice has undergone extensive research since 1950, and reputable studies have shown it has a positive effect on many patients. Most acupuncture practiced in the United States today is a combination of Eastern and Western research.
It stimulates nerves and muscles, and these days may include electric charges administered through the needles. Pediatric patients or those averse to needles may even opt for laser acupuncture, which has proven just as effective as the traditional treatment.
While we may laugh or shake our heads at what passed for medical treatment in history, all science is, after all, a process of experimentation. I can’t help wondering what accepted practice today will surprise the doctors in years to come.
With my oldest recently turning 16, we had three separate birthday parties. Needless to say, this took up a bit of my time. But I got to wondering where the tradition of birthday celebration came from. So, here’s a little history lesson on Birthdays.
In ancient Egypt, Egyptians celebrated the birthdays of what they considered their gods. Once a pharaoh was coronated he was considered a deity thus the date of coronation is considered his birth as a little “G” god.
We actually have a Biblical reference to Pharaoh’s birthday in Genesis 40:20 The old King James says, “And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.”
This is the story of Joseph who interprets the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker. The baker was hanged and the butler restored.
Speaking of bakers…
Birthday Party from St. Nicholas magazine (1909)
German bakers began baking birthday cakes in the 18th century. According to historian Elizabeth Pleck, birthday parties did not common even among wealthy Americans until the late 1830s.
Here is a first hand recount of a birthday celebration in the 1800s.
“After awhile I had a birthday. I didn’t know anything about it until when I got up in the morning, Pa played spank me, . . . one for each year. Then he gave me a little wooden man he had whittled out of a stick. Ma and Mary gave me a rag doll that Ma had made and Mary helped dress. And I was a great girl 4 years old!”
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Peer-culture birthday parties where children were included in the celebration did not become common even among wealthy Americans until the late thirties. The grades being set with specific age ranges in American urban public schools made going to friends’ parties popular.
When I was a little girl one of my friends from Sunday school had a grandpa who grew up in California. She used to brag that he went to one of Shirley Temple’s birthday parties as a child.
Now we have another account from Laura Ingles Wilder recounting the time she went to a friend’s party. In her true introverted fashion, she said she felt a little awkward, however, she did write a description of the party which is featured here.
“The long dining table was set and ready when we got there. It was beautiful with its silver and china its beautiful linen tablecloth and napkins. At each place, on a pretty little plate was an orange standing on end with the peel sliced in strips half way down and curled back making the orange look like a golden flower. I thought them the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, even prittier than the birthday cake in the center of the table”
Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society
Wilder even dressed up to commemorate her eighty-fourth birthday at the library in Mansfield, Missouri, in 1951.
Interesting facts about “Happy Birthday to You”
“Happy Birthday” is set to the melody of an older song called “Good Morning to All” (which was written by two teacher sisters named Mildred and Patty Hill. created a tune that Robert Coleman would turn into “Happy Birthday to You” in 1924.
The melody was first published in 1893. Early in the 1900s “Happy Birthday to You” began appearing in song books as an alternative to “Good Morning to All.”
When Justice Breyer protested Congress’s 20-year extension of the term of copyright in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft, 1 he chose one song to emphasize what was to his mind the already overly generous protection of copyright law:
“Happy Birthday to You (melody first published in 1893, song copyrighted after litigation in 1935), [the copyright of which is] still in effect and currently owned by a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner.”2 The example, even in that brief form, is a powerful one. “Happy Birthday to You” is a simple song that most people have learned by hearing it performed by family and friends, and many probably assume that it is not under copyright at all. 1893 is a long time ago – 106 years before Eldred was decided. And, for those who are unsympathetic to and suspicious of large corporations, AOL Time Warner – now just Time Warner – is one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world.” ~ Copyright and the World’s Most Popular Song” (2010).
William Butler Yeats:
“From our birthday, until we die, / Is but the winking of an eye.”
With my oldest child turning 16 I am reminded that every moment is a gift, each season is unique, and growing old is a blessing.
