Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 2 May 2004 Vol 3 Issue: #18 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, In "America" we have grown with the idea that this was the land of opportunity and that anyone could rise above his birth station in society. It has to be recognized that there are few social systems that are so rigid that the possibility of rising to higher classes is impossible. In the feudal systems of the past, if ambition drove a youth he might attend a university if he could find the means. Thus, he could prepare himself for a position in the state or the church. Also, he could, by moving to "town" earn and save enough money to become a burgher and thus elevate himself into the gentry class. It is true, however, that these avenues from one's inherited status or position were arduous paths and few at that. I pondered this during the week, in aa effort to discover what country life was like in the 1600s for my ancestry in the lowlands of Scotland and what it was like after they arrived in this country during the same 1600s. They both apparently liked rural isolated lifestyles. It is most difficult to imagine either lifestyle stripped of romanticism, but not impossible from the facts. Country life was mean and is difficult to conceive in this twenty-first century. In our early history pioneers clustered close for mutual protection. In the lowlands, a cluster of hovels supported the tenants and their helpers. A home most likely was constructed with field stones, banked with turf. No mortar was used but straw, heather or moss was stuffed into the "cracks" to keep out the "blasts" [of wind]. The roof was thatch or turf and the floor was earth. There was no chimney, but rather a hole in the peak of the roof to let smoke escape. Because the roof eventually became smoke clotted the room was often filled with clouds of smoke. As in very ancient of days, animals were tethered in one section of the room at night while the family slept at the other end. Not the most sanitary of situations. Yet, with the animals and vermin thus occupying the room, it was "warm" [so to speak]. Disease was propagated since the people had no knowledge of germs or the spread of disease or sanitary precautions or quarantine. It was a practice on the Sabbath for neighbors to gather at the hut of the sick to extend sympathy. The hovels would become stifling with heat and the visitors would walk away as carriers of disease. Small pox was a particularly devastating recurrent illness. Much like our western plains, the Scottish Lowlands were nearly treeless; unlike our Black Swamp of northwestern Ohio or the swamps of Southern Illinois. Thus, wood was valuable enough to salvage from one abode to another. However, like our swamp areas, the Lowland swamps, bogs and morasses were breeding grounds for mosquitoes and Malaria was common. Rheumatism was also a constant companion of these folks. The work had to be done in wet weather as in fair. Clothes were seldom changed, thus wet clothing was worn indoors and the Rheumatis' a common complaint. Houses had little furniture. Beds were bundles of straw and heather laid out on the floor. Often seats were flat boulders. Although plaid and bonnet [types of material] were the usual dress, some folk were forced to wear animal skins for clothing. From what I can discern, plaid was at first the crisscrossing of the natural white and black wool yarns to form a pattern. Black being the less available it was used intermittently. Flax was grown in some places, but the preferred means for material making was wool made into yarn. April 26th, 1607 marks the expedition of English colonists coming ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. Also in 1785 naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born in Haiti. In 1900, Seismologist Charles Richter was born in Hamilton, Ohio. On 27 April 1865, the steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war and in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. The only woman that I know that could really sing the National Anthem was born on the first of May 1907. However, that National Anthem was not the Star Spangled Banner, it was "God Bless America". When President Roosevelt introduced her to King George VI of England, he did so by saying, "Miss Smith is America". Would you believe she lived with her real name her entire life? She was born Kathryn Elizabeth Smith. Though she did not talk until she was aged four years, she was singing in her church at age five. On November 11, 1938, Kate Smith sang the song written especially for her by Irving Berlin .... "God Bless America". From that time forward she was associated with patriotism and patriotic themes. In one 18-hour session or broadcasting marathon, she inspired Americans to buy $107 million dollars worth of War Bonds for World War II. e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html