I’m Just Curious: Medieval times?

by Debbie Walker

When I was going to school I hated any mention of Ancient History (very old timie stuff)! Why would I care what happened that far back. The only history class I ever looked forward to was Maine History, supposed to be taught in my eighth grade. No! They stopped teaching it when I was in the seventh grade; that was the last year it was taught in our school! I’ll catch up to it sometime!

A friend of mine sat waiting for me to come out of the bionic knee surgery; she found me a magazine she thought I would be interested in. What terrible thing did I ever do to her that she would buy “Collector’s Edition Medieval Life?” It contains stories of ordinary people in the Middle Ages. It has just enough odd subjects to capture my interest! Some of the articles are:

Inside the Medieval Mind
Revealing Underwear
Medieval Postal System
Eight Dangers of the Medieval Period
Living With Leprosy
How to Send a Letter
Can We Understand the Medieval Psyche?

I suppose people have done a lot of research of ancient books, letters, etc. I would wonder how they managed to get up in the mornings. Depressing! “Fifteen Signs Before Doomsday,” just a little taste of their readings. Superstitions and reminders of death and what was feared to come after were ever present in their lives and art.

Where I don’t have the attitude for Ancient History I do have the attitude of interest for a different life and what appears to me to be a great deal of superstitions.

I read some of the information about clothing. Some of it was discovered under a floor and in fair shape. The thing that made me laugh out loud was women didn’t wear bras; they wore “breast bags”!

Some of their pets in Medieval Times were parrots, red squirrels and weasels.

I don’t know how Lene picked out this magazine but I was actually enjoying this reading today. It wasn’t full of … and this happened in 1492, test tomorrow!

The 8 Dangers of the Medieval Period:

Bad weather, Heresy, Famine, Childhood, Child Birth, Violence, Hunting and Early Death.

Then, of course, there was thievery, prostitution, bribery and murder.

(Is that different than now?)

It was said ‘Prostitution was as much a part of life as the saying of prayers and repenting of sins.’

So much for Medieval Times…..

I came across a couple of neat tidbits in my latest magazine.

You can use cooking spray to help speed dry your polished finger nails.

Polish nails, do top coat, 30 seconds later spritz with cooking oil.

A carpenter told me that you can use cooking spray to quiet squeaking hinges. I loved that one!

Clean your paint covered hands with it. Spray with cooking oil then rub it in.

Okay, I’m just curious if this will be our last snow storm, plleeaassee.

Contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading!