WHAT YEAR IS IT?

  

By Mary Davis

 

 

I thought Daylight Saving Time was confusing with each region, state, county, and city doing their own thing until it was standardized in 1966. (See my article on DST for the full, crazy story. https://www.hhhistory.com/2018/04/its-about-time.html ) Then earlier this month Suzanne Norquist wrote an article about time zones. (See her article. https://www.hhhistory.com/2026/10/whose-time-is-it-anyway.html) Now, I have delved into the idiosyncrasies of the calendar system, which was no easy matter.

 

Keeping track of the passage of time goes back to prehistoric eras. Since the earth’s population was so spread out, each region had their own date-keeping system, or no system at all and went by lunar cycles.

 

 

Along came the Julian calendar in 45 BC instituted by Julius Caesar, with the start of the year on March 25^th. Why such a random day? Your guess is as good as mine. It also introduced the Leap Day, which I’ll cover later in this article.

 

 

The Julian calendar was rocking along until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII instituted a new calendar to correct dating errors in the Julian calendar, which had too many Leap Years. This discrepancy had been noted for centuries and worked on by various people, then finally a new calendar was implemented under Pope Gregory XIII.

 

1^st page of the document to reform the Julian calendar

It took nations a while to make this change. Catholic dominated countries made the switch right away in 1582, while others held out until the 20^th Century. Greece finally got on board in 1923 and Saudi Arabia not until 2016. England, Wales, Ireland, and British territories didn’t make the change until 1752, 170 years after it was established. They didn’t want to give the appearance of being under the control of the Catholic Church again.

 

Adoption of Gregorian Calendar by country

During this time (1582-1923) when countries were making up their minds, people used “dual dating”. When dates were written, they would reflect both the Julian calendar, Old Style (O.S.), and the Gregorian calendar, New Style (N.S.). O.S. and N.S. were mainly used in the British Empire.

 

In what year was Wednesday, September 4^th followed by Thursday, September 15^th? The year was 1752. It was a short month that year. What happened to those eleven days? And why were they wiped from history?

 

It all has to do with Leap Day. Leap Day was once every four years on February 24^th O.S., not the 29^th but the 24^th. So, the day after February 24^th was . . . February 24^th.

 

Again.

 

 

Having a Leap Day goes all the way back to before the start of the Julian calendar. Scientists and astronomers figured out that there were more than 365 days in a year, but not a whole day, only a quarter. Over the decades, this quarter day changed the unchanging equinoxes. To compensate for this, every fourth year, a day was added . . . between February 24^th and the 25^th, giving the month two of the same day. Therefore, if you were born on the 24^th or the once-every-four-years leap day—also the 24^th—you would never miss your birthday. Eventually, this extra day was moved to the end of the month.

 

Post-Medieval Perpetual Calendar Coin

So, back to the missing eleven days. A calendar year doesn’t have an even 365 days and six hours in it. Actually, it’s 365 days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty-five seconds. This caused the calendar to be out of alignment from the earth’s orbit. When you add up all those extra minutes over hundreds of years, your calendar is off by eleven days. The more centuries that pass the more days your calendar is off.

 

Some people wanted to make up for these days by omitting the Leap Days over the next forty years. Others wanted to rip the bandage off and take care of those days all at once. The latter won. So September 4^th was followed by the 15^th. So, if your birthday fell between those dates, did that mean no cake or presents? Say it ain’t so!

 

Here is an example of some of the confusion caused by different countries using different calendars. William III of England sailed from the Netherlands on November 11, 1688 (Gregorian calendar) and, apparently, traveled back in time to arrive in England on November 5^th of that year (Julian calendar).

 

But wait, there’s more. New Year’s Day used to be March 25^th. The new calendar moved it to January 1^st. So, 1752 had only nine months for the British Empire, and 1753 became the new twelve-month cycle.

 

Because of all these date changes and subtracting days from the calendar, people used “dual dating”. They would combine what the date would be according to both the O.S. calendar and the N.S. Therefore, with not everyone using the same calendar, a date in a ledger or elsewhere might be written like this: 10/21 February 1750/1. The day of the month in the O.S. would be on the 10^th of 1750, while on the N.S. it would be 21 February 1751 to account for the eleven-day drift and the New Year’s Day change. Dual dating helped avoid confusion.

 

Interestingly, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson fell victim to this dual dating dilemma. Washington’s birthday is officially February 22, 1732 N.S., but he was born on February 11, 1731 O.S. Or it could be written 11/22 February 1731/2. Jefferson instructed to have on his tombstone, his birth date to be according to the Julian calendar (O.S.) and his death date the Gregorian calendar (N.S.).

 

Jefferson Tombstone--"BORN APRIL 2 1743 O.S. DIED JULY 4 1826"

Still, not everyone strictly uses the Gregorian calendar. There are many other calendars in use today that are utilized alongside the Gregorian calendar.

 

Time is fascinating, but it sure can be confusing.

 

THE QUILTING CIRCLE SERIES Box Set

Historical Romance Series

By Mary Davis

THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT (Book1) – Will a secret clouding a single mother’s past cost Lily her loved ones?

THE DAUGHTER’S PREDICAMENT (Book2) *SELAH & WRMA Finalist* – As Isabelle’s romance prospects turn in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams.

THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Book3) *SELAH Winner* – Nicole heads down the mountain to fetch herself a husband. Can she learn to be enough of a lady to snag the handsome rancher?

THE DÉBUTANTE’S SECRET (Book4) – Complications arise when a fancy French lady steps off the train and into Deputy Montana’s arms.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNZPRRS2/ref=sr_1_7?crid=3NJNTQ5SD1WGB&keywords=the+quilting+circle+by+mary+davis&qid=1700957455&s=digital-text&sprefix=%2Cdigital-text%2C155&sr=1-7

 

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in Colorado with her Carolina Dog, Shelby, and her pocket black Lab, Willow. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_dating

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption_of_the_Gregorian_calendar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar#Difference_between_Gregorian_and_Julian_calendar_dates

https://everything.explained.today/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates/

GOODNE MORGEN

 

By Mary Davis

 

Good morning, or some derivative of it, isn’t as old as I thought it was. I figured it would go back to the beginning of time. It seems like the perfect way to greet the day. However, it only hales from about a thousand years ago. So where did this cheerful greeting start?

Before good morning, people greeted each other with a variant of good day. But someone in medieval times must have decided to greet their neighbor in Old English with a more time specific salutation and say “I wish you a goodne morgen”, which eventually got shortened to “goodne morgen”.

 

The first known reference to “good morning”, or some form of it, is found in Europe in the late Middle Ages. Now, when I see Middle Ages, I say “Huh? When was that?” It is from the 5th century to the 15th century. I know, confusing. So, the late Middle Ages would have been the 1300s to the 1500s. A form of good morning was used in Germanic languages (German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic).

Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory, published in 1485, seems to be the first recorded use of good morning—then gode morwene. However, the use of it was likely well before that but didn’t get written down until then.

Old English used goodne morgen, while in German it was guten morgen, Swedish was god morgon, and Norwegian, god morgen. However, Iceland never conformed to good morning and remained with the equivalent of good day.

“Goodne morgen” turned into good morwe which in turn became good morrow that gave way to good morning. And in modern times might simply be “mornin’.”

The romance languages like French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian stuck with good day as in bonjour, buenos días, and buon giorno.

Ancient Rome and Biblical times had no comparable term for good morning but used phrases of wishing people health and peace.

 

Author Image

Conversely, gōd niht (good night) has been around only a little bit longer, since the 1200s. This also stems from Old English. Where good morning is a greeting, good night is a farewell.

 

Willow says “Fare thee well until the morrow.”

 

 

 

NEWLYWED GAMES

A "little white lie" grows into a very big problem. Meghann Livingston invents a husband to soothe her dying mother. But when her mom miraculously recovers and comes to visit, Meghann is hard-pressed to explain her "husband's" absence! Before Meghann can come clean, her handsome, elusive boss, Bruce Halloway, inadvertently steps into her romantic charade...and to Meghann's shock and horror, insists upon playing along. The masquerade's success depends upon them playing their newlywed games extremely well. When they do, both Meghann and Bruce—even as they struggle to overcome the consequences of their deceptions—find themselves falling in love...for real!

 

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Rocky Mountains with her Carolina dog, Shelby, and her pocket black Lab, Willow. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub

 

Sources

https://vintage.tn/how-long-have-people-been-saying-good-morning/

https://www.etymonline.com/word/good%20morning

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/awakening-history-untold-story-good-morning-maureen-mugi-6hqzf

https://fluentvista.com/where-did-the-term-good-morning-come-from/

https://www.calendar-uk.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/who-invented-the-word-good-morning

https://selfexploration.academy/the-academic-glossary/good-night

FROM FEED SACK TO FASHION

  

By Mary Davis

 

Feed sacks a.k.a. pretties, cotton commodities bags, chicken linen.

 

Before feed and flour sacks, food was transported in barrels, kegs, boxes, and tins for about the first 200 years in America.

 

Around the 1820s to 1840s, hand-woven, handsewn cotton bags were made to carry corn, wheat, and other grains to the gristmill, and after it was ground into powder, flour from these dry-goods could be hauled back home. Farmers would stamp their names on their sacks so that the miller would know who the grain belonged to. These bags made transporting products by horseback much easier.

 

1925

1926

Sacks grew in popularity with the advent of sewing machines, and flour sack machines were invented. Women used them for kitchen towels, diapers, aprons, bandages, rags, and more. Clothing was made as early as the 1890s.

 

Laframboise Family in Flour/Feed Sack Clothes

When textile mills got involved, they stamped advertising and logos on them. Farm wives would use lard, kerosene, fels, naphtha, and bleach to remove these, with varying degrees of success. When the textile industry got wind of this, they started using washable vegetable dyes to make the promotional printing easer to remove, therefore making their bags more desirable. Poor children were often teased for wearing “chicken-feed clothes.”

 

By the nineteen-teens, the use of barrels had virtually disappeared.

 

Flour & Feed Packing Facility, 1918, Cleveland, OH

In the 1920s, marketers decided to up the game of bag appeal, so entered the calico, gingham, and plaid prints as well as days-of-the-week towels and embroidery patterns to turn sacks into pillowcases. There were even dolls and stuffed animals printed on some to sew for children’s toys. Quilts were also a popular item to make from these colorful sacks.

 

What had once been throwaway packaging became a product unto itself. Companies became competitive and created limited edition prints. Hurry and buy them before they’re gone. <SIGH> Nothing has changed.

 

Women would send their husbands to the store with instruction to buy so many of a particular print. Heaven help the man who came back with the wrong or mismatched designs.

 

Feed companies even issued clothing patterns to include how many sacks it would take to make them. Some even included them inside the bag. Clothing made from feed sacks became a booming success. Magazines featured them. County fairs had competitions to see who could make the most beautiful, fashionable dress. Even wedding dresses were sew out of them.

 

Feedsack dress by Mrs. Dorothy Overall

McCalls and Simplicity patterns also began putting the number of sacks needed to make them.

 

In the 1930s, sewing garments out of these sacks was a necessity. When WWII came along and textiles were rationed, repurposing this fabric was patriotic, even heroic. Government got involved, instructing people how to make children’s clothing out of sacks. So what had been done out of a need to survive was now a mandate. The feed and flour companies pushed to get feed sack cloth labeled as industrial textile so it wasn’t under rationing efforts.

 

By the early 1940s, 3.5 million women and children were wearing feed sack clothing. At its height, textile companies were producing 1.3 billion yards of sack cloth per year. After the war, rationing lifted and ready-made clothing became available again. Companies began using paper and plastic for packaging, which were cheaper to produce.

 

Though not as common, pretties, cotton commodities bags, and chicken linen continued to be printed and worn into the 1960s.

 

THE QUILTING CIRCLE SERIES Box Set

Historical Romance Series

By Mary Davis

THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT (Book1) – Will a secret clouding a single mother’s past cost Lily her loved ones?

THE DAUGHTER’S PREDICAMENT (Book2) *SELAH & WRMA Finalist* – As Isabelle’s romance prospects turn in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams.

THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Book3) *SELAH Winner* – Nicole heads down the mountain to fetch herself a husband. Can she learn to be enough of a lady to snag the handsome rancher?

THE DÉBUTANTE’S SECRET (Book4) – Complications arise when a fancy French lady steps off the train and into Deputy Montana’s arms.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNZPRRS2/ref=sr_1_7?crid=3NJNTQ5SD1WGB&keywords=the+quilting+circle+by+mary+davis&qid=1700957455&s=digital-text&sprefix=%2Cdigital-text%2C155&sr=1-7

 

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in Colorado with her Carolina Dog, Shelby, and her pocket black Lab, Willow. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub

 

Sources

https://lorabloomquist.com/feedsacks-flour-sacks-grain-sacks-difference/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yVbH0qK6VQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LOu4UmFeTU

https://textileranger.com/2013/09/30/flourishing-in-flour-sacks/

STUCK ON YOU

   

By Mary Davis

 

Have you ever put clay and plant fibers on a wound? No?

 

Well, if that doesn’t appeal to you, how about sawdust?

 

The Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Chinese, to name a few, used clay, plants, honey, poultices, raw meat, lint, as well as animal grease, among various other things to dress wounds and protect them. Any of those in your medicine cabinet?

 

These were all laborious, cumbersome, and didn’t always stay in place, especially while moving about.

 

 

We have newly married Josephine Dickson to thank for the modern-day self-adhesive bandage, or rather her husband. She was a bit of a hazard to herself in the kitchen with frequent cuts and burns.

 

Earle Dickson was a cotton buyer for the Johnson & Johnson company. He was concerned for his accident-prone, young bride, so in 1920, he combined two of the company’s products, gauze and adhesive tape. This allowed his wife to easily tend to her own injuries, rather than balancing gauze while trying to wrap tape around it.

 

These pre-BAND-AIDs were an eighteen-inch-long strip of adhesive tape two and a half inches wide. Gauze was placed down the middle of it. Then the next time Mrs. Dickson had a mishap while cooking, she could merely cut a width commensurate with the wound size and apply it unassisted.

 

 

Dickson showed his design to one of the Johnson brothers. In 1921, J & J started producing these first BAND-AIDs, all made by hand. They were not popular in this form, so the company precut them and individually wrapped them. To help with sales, they distributed free BAND-AIDs to the Boy Scouts of America.

 

 

I remember those tins on the right. Brings back memories of scraped knees.

 

In 1924, they automated and produced them by machine. But it wasn’t until 1939 that they began selling a sterilized version. The red pull string was added in 1940, which remained unchanged for fifty-two years until they introduced the pull-apart design.

 

 

As a child, I thought those tiny round ones were useless because of their size and would put them on for fun.

 

The first decorative ones, stars and stripes, were introduced in 1956. Various other prints and characters have graced them. Throughout the decades, the types of tape have evolved to include fabric, plastic, clear, and water resistant.

 

The famous jingle written by Barry Manilow, "I am stuck on BAND-AID Brand ’cuz BAND-AID’s stuck on me", didn’t come along until 1976.

 

Over a hundred years later, BAND-AIDs are still sticking to people.

 

MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR (Heroines of WWII series)
3rd Place 2023 SELAH Award

A WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) flies a secret mission to rescue three soldiers held captive in Cuba.

Margaret “Peggy” Witherspoon is a thirty-four-year-old widow, mother of two daughters, an excellent pilot, and very patriotic. She joins the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). As she performs various tasks like ferry aircraft, transporting cargo, and being an airplane mechanic, she meets and develops feelings for her supervisor Army Air Corp Major Howie Berg. When Peggy learns of U.S. soldiers being held captive in Cuba, she, Major Berg, and two fellow WASPs devise an unsanctioned mission to rescue them. With Cuba being an ally in the war, they must be careful not to ignite an international incident. Order HERE!

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Rocky Mountains with her Carolina dog, Shelby, and her mini black lab, Willow. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub

Sources

Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, p250-251

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-band-aid-1991345

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band-Aid

https://www.band-aid.com/about/history

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-band-aid-1991345