Daily Bathing

Dear Byron,

We really enjoyed your visit a few evenings back. When Mommy and Daddy left to go to a movie, you didn't mind at all. We got out that old walker and away we went around the block. Had a good time doing it too. And when we returned to our house you had a good time messing with the stones in the pea gravel mix along the path. But then it got dark and we had to go into the house. Before long it was time to get ready for bed and a bath! Yeah, a bath! You really have a good time with those baths, dumping water from one cup to the next and splashing around with a wash rag.

I want to say something about bathing. Did you know that a long, long time ago folks considered it dangerous to take too many baths? Sylver Blaque writes about baths. I borrow some of this information from her.

In Medieval times, long, long ago, many European doctors believed that allowing water to touch, enter, swirl around the naked flesh caused disease, sickness, and eventual death. They believed water would seep into your system through the pores of your skin to flood the bather with impurities. They even considered it dangerous to drink water. That's why they drank ale instead.

Where Middle Eastern religious practices required bathing, medieval European church authorities saw bathing as a something really bad. You weren't supposed to even touch yourself. God forbids it, they said. And if you did, He would send you to be punished forever.

Though these people did bathe, they did so very rarely and wore a thin linen or muslin cloth gown to keep the water from entering their pores, as well as to keep their own hands from directly touching their bodies as they bathed.

In medieval castles, round tubs made of copper or wood were used to bathe in. Hence the term ‘bath tub.’

You can read more about how people bathed in Europe in those long ago times at various websites. Here's another I found that talks about Middle Ages Hygiene.

I want to say something more about those bath tubs. You see, I lived on a farm in southern Minnesota when I was your age. It was a little house and we didn't have a built in bath tub. Instead, my Momma would heat up some water on her wood burning stove on Saturday evening and pour it into a galvanized wash tub on the kitchen floor. It looked like the picture on the right. Then she'd plunk both my little sister and me into the tub and give us our weekly bath. And we didn't wear any clothes either. In winter when it gets very cold outside up there it felt good to be near that wood burning stove in the kitchen. 

Things sure are different now. Daily bathing is considered a good thing. I'm glad you enjoy it and I look forward to helping you with your bath again the next time you come to visit. 

With all our love, 

Papa