Monday, December 19
We explored Madison and Watkinsville, Georgia on day 3 of our Antebellum Trail trip. Madison was absolutely adorable and I was very tempted to buy one of the Antebellum mansions and move there. We spent most of the day walking around the towns oooh-ing and ahh-ing at the beautiful Antebellum homes.
My dream home...
While touring these homes, we learned about where some of the idioms we use come from. For example, the expression "sleep tight" comes from the beds that were in these homes. They were rope beds which means that they had a wooden frame and rope weaving back and forth under your mattress to hold it up. As the ropes would become loose, you had to tighten them. So when someone says "sleep tight" they are referring to tightening the ropes under your bed.
The expression "don't let the bed bugs bite" comes from the fact that their mattresses were stuffed with straw, so sometimes the straw in your mattress would have bugs in it.
If you have ever heard someone say "don't throw the baby out with the bath water" it comes from this time period as well. A household would often only have one bathtub and everyone would use the same bath water. You would bathe oldest to youngest, so the father would go first and the baby would go last. Since the families were so big, by the time the baby got to bathe the water would be so dirty that they would simply open the window when they were finished and throw the bath water out the window. So that expression reminds you to fish the baby out of the dirty bath water before you chuck it out the window.
No comments:
Post a Comment