I’m half American and English so I have lots of battling DNA in me which one wouldn’t think being the case as we as Americans share a language and heritage with the Brits.
I can confirm that when visiting my English grandparents in the 1970s that they didn’t bathe as much as I was used to. For one thing, their toilet facility was on the back porch and their bath was a tub in the kitchen covered by a wooden board! To heat up water for a bath, you had to heat up water for a bath! There was no plumbing into it. And not just one person used that bath water. It wasn’t too pleasant to be the second person taking the bath. At the time of those visits at 6 and 10 years, I wasn’t so much concerned about the used bath water, but the luke-warmness of it.
My mom came to the U.S. when she was 21 so she lost some of her English ways along the way...infrequent bathing being one. I can remember her telling me when I was an adolescent that as a teen she washed her hair once a week! I was horrified! So I fluctuate between one to two showers/baths a day, but sometimes I revert to my primitive English heritage. It’s fun to go a little Neanderthal at times!
Another thing that was totally odd to me was that my grandparents had no refrigerator. They had a pantry. Milk and drinks were luke warm. No refrigeration so perishables had to be used up fast. As an American, I love my ice!
My mom did confirm that my grandfather finally joined the 20th century during the 1980s. She went back to visit and he had a tiny fridge with the tiniest ice cube tray. :)
One funny story was that my grandparents came to visit my mom and dad while my dad was still stationed in England. Grandma wasn’t overly concerned with aesthetics or hygiene to say the least, but she did try to be thoughtful in her own way. She had packed in her suitcase a dead chicken with the feathers still on it for the meal. :) Good ole g-ma. :) Glad I got to meet her that one time when I was 6. She had just passed before my 2nd visit. Rough and grumpy and a little bit lazy at times, but she and my grandfather got their family through WWII. She knew how to make do and survive.
share a language?
Hardly! When I was in Britain I could barely understand what they were saying. I had to ask them to speak slowly and even then had to concentrate to understand.
The “t” in water is not silent!
Your grandma couldn’t get away with that dead chicken in the suitcase here and now. The TSA would be all over her.
Unless....she could plead traveling voodoo priestess. Yeah, that would work.
Consider that I am a lot older than most of you...
When we were little, we only washed our hair once a week, and we had to use a vinegar and water rinse to make sure we could get all the soap film out of our hair.
On a recent visit to my doc, he ordered a Vit. D level test to make sure I wasn’t deficient. Many of us elderly living in the northern states do not get enough.
He questioned me about my showering habits, and said that it wasn’t a good idea to shower too often, as it washed Vit. D off the skin. I was surprised.
So, there may be something to not lathering up every day, unless one has been plowing the north 40, or toiling away in the coal mine.
I do wonder about a lot of the chemicals that are in modern shampoos, lotions, and soaps. Could they be harmful to our overall health when used so frequently over a long period of time?
That’s a heck of a story, beaversmom. Thank you. :)