Silence and we both thought about that one...
An hour or so later, I received my history lesson from Lane...
Your misadventure did prompt me to research some of the history of toilet paper…
The greeks used pieces of stone and clay.
The Romans apparently used a sponge at the end of a stick — which was communally used by everyone. Yippee. Kept in a bucket of heavily salted seawater when not in use.
Earliest use of paper for the task was the chinese (of course) — 1391, the Emperor of the Song dynasty ordered 2’ x 3’ sheets of paper for his toilet purposes. But apparently, the Chinese before then were already using random sheets of paper.
Queen Elizabeth I’s godson invented the flush toilet in 1596, but not toilet paper to go with it.
In Colonial times here, the item of choice was corncobs. At some point, that switched to old magazines and newspapers. Apparently, the reason the Farmer’s Almanac had a hole in the upper left corner was so it could be hung in the outhouse after reading it, for “other uses.”
It wasn’t until 1857 that Joseph Gayety invented commercial toilet paper. “Gayety’s medicated paper" was available until the late 1920s, with his name watermarked on the sheets.
Imagine last night with clay, stones, or corn cobs. Makes the current set-up seem so civilized and comfy, doesn’t it?
Okay, school’s out for the day. Hope you feel better.
***
I have fully recovered thanks to a flush toilet and soft toilet paper.
In my twenties, an older woman I worked with, who was much traveled, told me that throughout the undeveloped world, people use their left hand for wiping. She said that is why you always offer your right hand to a stranger - to offer your left hand is an insult. At the time I totally believed the older woman (who was probably about 35), but I have never heard about this anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteThat woman was correct, and probably traveled in Africa and the middle East, where those customs come from. I can back her up.
ReplyDeleteYes, Amy is right -- I saw some USO type show on TV during the Afghan war where some comedian met local Afghans, nomadic types, and she (it may have been Kathy Griffin) somehow held the hand of one, sort of in a friendly way, and thought the dried brown stuff on these men's hands was from gardening or something and then someone told her the truth.
ReplyDeleteSurely they washed their hands....
ReplyDeleteNo, they showed a bunch of men with brown crusty stuff on their left hands... which reminds me of this Nigerian man I knew once who would eat with his right hand only... would never pick up a potato chip or anything with left hand due to tradition. I imagine he used TP but the taboo was that strong.
ReplyDelete