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Archiver > APG > 2008-02 > 1204161384


From: <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Dialects, Language, Regionalism
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:16:24 -0600
References: <mailman.122745.1204057616.18604.apg@rootsweb.com><f9f250c9fa2fa4462f5c886fbbc2dc1d@stanfordalumni.org>


As I read all these comparisons of dialect and foods and names for things,
and memories of how things were done in our youth, I can only think about
how grateful we would all be if we had writings such as this from our
grandparents or great-grandparents or from even further back. It would be an
amazing find to discover some writing by an ancestor about what they called
things, the common things they ate and cooked and drank, and revealing their
everyday language and habits.

Maybe someday, long in the future,someone will be researching the ancient
APG archives and happen upon this treasure trove of posts about the past.

I hope we all take what we have written for this list and paste in into our
genealogy programs or word processors to save under our own personal
notes--right there along with our dates and places of birth, marriage, and
death; our grandchildren will not know about party lines and frappes and
co-colas and frozen sheets and davenports, etc. What is common to us is
taken for granted; let's all make it a point to record this for our
descendants instead of taking these things for granted as common things that
"everybody" knows.

If I could just sit down and expand on what I've written, I think my
descendants would be amazed to read my simple words about a world with no
microwaves, no cell phones, outhouses (not to mention racism and my personal
perspective of now-"historical" events) and all the other memories about
sarsaparilla and egg creams and co-colas and warshrags and sweet tea and
renching (rinsing) and CUEpons that have been disgorged on this list lately.

My own grandmother, in my lifetime, warshed and renched her dirty clothes in
big black washpots under which she built fires out behind the milk house at
her Arkansas home (the warshing "action" was provided by a big heavy stick
or pole she kept for just that purpose), and then she draped the wet warsh
over the fences around the pasture. My grandchildren will likely never know
about, or relate to, this world if I don't record it for them.

Just as we're losing touch with the world of our ancestors, so will our
descendants lose touch with our world, if we don't preserve it now. I have a
tendency to think that 1948, the year I was born, was just the other day,
not the "past." Well, it IS the past, and I need to record information about
that past along with other data that genealogists traditionally record.

As y'all know, I started college late, and I had quite a cultural shock when
I took a history class about the Vietnam War--an era of which I was a part
and had my own vivid memories; and yet here was a professor, younger than I,
teaching it as history! Maybe I need to write down my thoughts about this
and other things as part of the record I leave behind--"history" from my
personal perspective.

This is just another aspect of adding meat to the bones of our genealogies;
of adding historical context. We know this, but don't seem to recognize our
own "historical context" when we see it!

And Carolyn Ybarra's post about tea made me wonder: it seems apparent that
at one time our ancestors drank tea (hot tea) as the English still do,
because many of our ancestors (that were in the new world at the time) WERE
English. And probably, during and after the Revolutionary War, our folks
drank less of it or none, as it would've had to be imported from England. So
at what point in time did our ancestors finally diverge from the custom of
drinking hot tea in favor of coffee, in contrast to the British, who stuck
with hot tea?

Both coffee and tea would've had to be imported, and probably neither was
cheap--so when did the changeover happen and why?

And when did the South became the place where people drank sweet tea/iced
tea? In some of our lifetimes or long before? I don't remember a world
without sweet tea as the main beverage in my family. I drank it constantly,
when I wasn't drinking co-cola; people used to tell me it would "stunt my
growth" but I grew to be 5'10" so I reckon if it DID stunt my growth, it was
probably a good thing!

And when I was about ten, the coke truck came around every week and left a
case or two of whatever cokes we wanted; my brother and I were allowed to
choose, and we usually chose "real" Coke, but often filled out some of the
order with Grapette or Orange Crush. Seems like somebody in my family would
even occasionally order a Dr. Pepper or two. But that was like a miracle to
me--that this truck would deliver the wooden cases filled with glass bottles
of cokes.

And remember going down to the little country store and paying a dime (a
nickel?) to select your ice cold coke out of that machine that let you slide
the bottle down to the end and out of the case? A lower, chest-type box that
was short enough for a child to operate, not those big tall machines we have
now.

And I don't give a flying flip what anybody says: the old original Coke did
NOT taste like Coke today; it wasn't so sweet, and it had a real "bite" to
it. I would pour it over a bowl of vanilla ice cream and enjoy the yin and
yang of the sweet/tart flavors together. If I did that today, it would just
be sweet tasting. (Or did my taste buds just get old?)

Regards, Carolyn Earle Billingsley

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Ybarra" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: [APG] Dialects, Language, Regionalism
<snip>
> Reading my ancestor's probate inventory from 1813, I remember being
> surprised they had "Indian Corn." Although someone told me it used to
> have a different meaning than the colorful corn it refers to now. They
> also had "milch cows." And even though they were English by descent, I
> was surprised they had teapots. For some reason it never occurred to
> me that they would have kept drinking tea, even after the Revolution.
>
> Carolyn
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .
>
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