*Note: Some of the language below may be a little antiquated because its excerpts and transcriptions from a the book -Transcription from Historic Houses of New Jersey By Weymer Jay Mills .J. B. Lippincott Company – written in 1902 = The original words provide a unique glimpse of the people and early times in New Jersey. Almost […]
DYK: Did you know? The short stick comes from candle making – Candles were expensive to make, so often reeds were dipped in tallow and burned instead. When visitors came, it was the custom for guests to make their exit by the time the lights went out. Therefore, if your host didn’t want you to […]
DYK: Did you know? “Strike while the iron” is a phrase that means to take action immediately in order to have a better chance of success. It comes from the days when blacksmiths lifted iron objects from the furnace and hammered it. They could only hammer the object into shape while the iron was hot, before it […]
DYK: Did you know? The saying ‘spic and span’ meant new. A span was a wood shaving. If something was newly built it would have tell-tale wood chips so it was ‘span new’ spick is an old word for a nail. New spicks or nails would be shiny. However words and phrases often change their […]
*Note: Some of the language below may be a little antiquated because its excerpts and transcriptions from a the book -Transcription from Historic Houses of New Jersey By Weymer Jay Mills .J. B. Lippincott Company – written in 1902 = The original words provide a unique glimpse of the people and early times in New […]
DYK: Did you know? Pulling out a stop lets air flow through a pipe and make a sound. Prior to the introduction of pipe organs the word ‘stop’ had, in a musical context, been used to mean ‘note’ or ‘key’. Organs have stops to control the air flow through the pipes and pulling them out […]
DYK: Did you know To close ranks means to join with someone in a cause, or agreement. In the old-time European armies, the soldiers were aligned side by side, in neat rows, or ranks, on the battlefield. When the enemy attacked, officers would order the troops to close ranks; that is, to move the rows close together, so that the enemy faced a […]
March 31, 1916 On March 31, 1916, Julia Strudwick Tutwiler’s death was reported in the Florence Times. Julia Strudwick Tutwiler died in Birmingham, Alabama. She was a woman with progressive ideas who contributed much to the education and penal system in Alabama. Julia Tutwiler was born in Havana, Alabama to Henry and Julia Ashe Tutwiler […]
DYK: Did you know? In olden days, your dinner plate was a square piece of wood with a “bowl” carved out to hold your serving of the perpetual stew that was always cooking over the fire. The kettle was never actually emptied and cleaned out. New ingredients were simply added to the muck. You always […]
Did You Know? THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW- Comes from Matthew 7:14. In the King James version of the Bible, published in 1611, he says: ‘Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth to life’. The old English word strait meant tight or narrow but when it went out of use the phrase […]
