HISTORY DEBUNKED

Yesterday I ventured into the bowels of my basement library where I found a wonderfully crafted book.

Death by Petticoat, (American Myths Debunked) by Mary Miley Theobald, in conjunction with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

PETTICOATS

The book title refers to the myth that colonial women died from burns when their long petticoats caught fire, that made it the leading cause of death, after childbirth.

"Not so!" say historians. Disease was the leading cause. Petticoat material, such as cotton, wool and linen tend to smolder, rather than burst into flame.

COATHANGERS

The book casually mentioned that clothes hangers did not appear until after the civil war. 

The shoulder-shaped wire hanger has been attributed to either one of these inventors,  O. A. North of Connecticut (Idea=1869) or Albert J. Parkhouse of Michigan (Implementation=1903)

But the early wooden clothes hanger was supposedly invented by Thomas Jefferson.

If you are interested, there is a book on the subject:

The Intriguing History of the Coathanger by Benjamin Judd.

CLAY PIPES

When clay pipes were all the rage, they were shared after stem pieces were snapped off for sanitary reasons.

"Not so!" say our friendly historians.  Clay pipe smokers didn't know about or care about germs. The stem breakage was just a result of forging extra long pipe stems. They were made long because of the heat from the bowl that burned one's lips. Long stems dissipated such heat. 

I've mentioned before the time I visited my grandfather who lived in a room in the house in which he was raised. It was now a nursing home.

He asked me to retrieve something he had hidden in the stone wall still standing in back of this home. 

His father was a devout Christian who forbade tobacco usage of any kind, so my grandfather purchased a clay pipe and would sneak puffs seated behind the stone wall.  When he had inhaled enough noxious fumes, he hid the pipe and tobacco in an inconspicuous hole in the wall.  This terrible criminal act occurred over 75 years earlier and Grandpa insisted that the pipe would still be there. 

In my stupidity, I did not attempt to find the pipe, because I thought that he might try to smoke it in violation of Nursing Home rules. What a dumb ass I was, to deprive my beloved grandfather of something important to him!

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