A trip to ColonialWilliamsburg and Jamestown, VA opens your eyes to what it was like living in the 1600s to 1700s. Unfortunately, while I was there, we were so busy that I took very poor notes. Suffice to say, most of these items are odd to us now.
The Dental Office
If you’ve had any dental work done in your life, some of these instruments might not look too odd. It still takes some prying and leverage to get out a tooth. I’m not sure what all they kept in the jars. I’m guessing maybe something for pain.
The Kitchen
We also took a look at the kitchen during the war period. Here’s the cooking area. The holes are ovens. The summer temperatures get into the 100s and are very muggy. Imagine what it would be like cooking for the army.
Cast iron Dutch ovens were prominent in Colonial times. and were used for baking, frying, roasting, steaming, and broiling. This method of cooling retained much of the food’s nutritive value, but the pots were very heavy to transport when the battlefields moved. They sometimes got lost according to one source I read.
This next piece of equipment is anyone’s guess. Careful, it’s hot! See the fire burning in the ravine?
Upcoming on Always Write
- Today is the last day to enter comments on this months Story Chat, “Handle with Caution” by KL Caley. Tomorrow’s Summary includes comments from chatters in attendance this month. Comments always link back to one of your recent blog posts. Next month’s story will be brought to you by Yvette Prior of Priohouse Blog.
- Two more days to link your Dream Vacations posts to WQW (Writer’s Quote’s Wednesday. The only requirement is to include at least one quote.
- Thursday is the deadline for linking your PPAC (Photographing Public Art Challenge) posts. There is no theme to this challenge, but public art must be free and visible. This challenge could be linked to both posts this week if you’ve got some travel photos to share.
Have a great week and enjoy these last few days of SquareOdds.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
29 responses to “Square Odds #21: Different Times”
I love visiting historical sites and places like this, where people have preserved a way of life and can demonstrate it for us to experience. I come to the conclusion we are all strong in our own way and the strength of our ancestors is forever evolving and changing to keep up with the many faces of pain and fear . . .
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It is such an amazing place, Jaya. It takes some time to imbibe a culture. Even our own culture has morphed in over 200 years until it’s almost unrecognizable, yet we get glimpses of similarities and how we got where we are today.
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[…] for SquareOdds, I posted photos from Colonial Williamsburg depicting life as it was in the 1600-1700s. Chel Owens and I had a short conversation about what […]
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I would faint having a tooth pulled out in the days of past. Great images Marsha.
Thanks for this Anita
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I would faint, too, Anita. 🙂
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I loved Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, as i think I’ve told you previously. You’ve picked out some fascinating details here 🙂
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Thanks, Sarah. I love this challenge because I’ve had those pictures since 2008. At the time I didn’t blog, and when I started blogging I had so many new pictures that I used a few of them for posts, but I never did a series on them. There is so much information and so little of it is in my head and only a tiny, tiny part of it is in my notes. Thanks again for reading. You are such an expert on history I marvel at your posts.
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I’m certainly mot an expert on history but I enjoying researching the places we visit 🙂
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mot = not of course!
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LOL
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Isn’t the internet great? I also keep brochures and have books on the subjects I write about often. I don’t use them though for short posts like this one.
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If this is ‘the good old days’, count me out!
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I’m with you Margaret. Most of my grandparents lost their teeth early in life. I’m happy to have all of mine except the ones that needed to come out to give me straight teeth. (And that’s just one facet of life I enjoy now! And it’s nearly two centuries past the times these instruments came from!) I’m happy with my life now. But it sure was interesting to go back there and experience life then, while still enjoying the comforts of now. 🙂
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Definitely the best way to do it.
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I agree with Becky! Glad dentists don’t use those instuments anymore.
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Me too. Having been a dental assistant 50 years ago, I have seen such a change in dentistry from that era. I see some similarities in the oral surgical instruments. We do so much less oral surgery for toothaches now. People today have the means available to take care of their teeth and realize how important their health is to the rest of the body. When something goes wrong, their are other solutions besides giving up on your teeth.
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That’s true Marsha!
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🙂
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glad I didn’t have to visit that dentist!
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Amen to that!
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are you mixing the dental tools with the cooking ones? lol!🤣💖
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In advertantly, LOL. This is a post on odds! Plus I finished at 1:00 am and it was one of my quicky posts! But you have to admit it’s nice not to have a toothache when you eat. I was at breakfast with a friend the other day who had one. She bit down on a piece of pasta, gasped and covered her face. We had just started eating, but she was done. She recovered enough to be able to visit. I can’t imagine those soldiers were eating pasta, but those Dutch ovens could makes some pretty soft food. But you can’t fight a war with a toothache or without food. How’s that for a long defensive answer to a short sweet comment? LOL
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Sometimes we find a bit of modern garbage, and sometimes I wonder what someone from the future might guess it was for. 🙂
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And to think it’s only been three hundred years. Thanks for the comment, Chel. We won’t have enough space on the planet for museums to explain it all!
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Oh, my, yes. It’s going to be like “Wall-E.” We’ve really got to stop.
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You are right. Once something gets started it’s so hard to change unless you completely change the way society lives. By that, I mean from horses and buggies to cars types of changes. We no longer have manure in the streets, now we have pollution in the air. The car fixed one problem permanently over time, but caused an entirely different one. Electric cars may solve pollution, but then the landfills and water supplies will have to deal with battery pollution. Solar cars might solve the problem. Just telling society they have to buy electric cars will not make people do it either. They will do it because they want to do it like people enjoyed the novelty of horseless buggies. Didn’t you love Wall-E? I got a little carried away with this comment, Chel. It’s Wall-E’s fault! 🙂
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😀 You’re fine. Wall-E affected me, too -like when he leaves the planet and crashes through all those satellites. Ah; our poor planet.
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These are way cool 😀 😀
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Thanks, Cee. Would you care to go to the dentist???
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