Bath

Cidu Bill on Jan 18th 2012

bath.png

Filed in Baldo, Bill Bickel, CIDU, comic strips, comics, humor | 12 responses so far

12 Responses to “Bath”

  1. James Pollock Jan 17th 2012 at 11:25 pm 1

    If you have no running water, and can’t bathe, you don’t invite anyone over, so they won’t notice.

  2. fuzzmaster Jan 18th 2012 at 12:33 am 2

    I’m probably overanalyzing the joke & James is correct, but … if you need a bath and you don’t take one … don’t you just keep needing a bath? Hence, the family never, ever had anyone over — or left the house themselves?

    And I’m wondering what, other than comics convention, the thoughtful pause in the third panel signifies. I mean, if your whole family stank from never having had a bath for years on end, I think you’d remember that pretty quickly.

    And, as it happens, I have lived in a house — well, a summer house — with no running water. We had this new invention they call a well, though, and we’d carry the water into the house to bathe. (Those buckets are heavy, so, no, that wasn’t running water. More of slow stumbling, as I recall.)

  3. Ron Jan 18th 2012 at 12:41 am 3

    I believe the third panel was a pause while she censors, “We didn’t
    have a bathtub.” into something else (a la fourth panel).

  4. Ron Jan 18th 2012 at 12:45 am 4

    Ref to an old Colorado law that required a prescription for anyone
    wanting to take a bath:
    http://facts.randomhistory.com/crazy-laws.html

  5. Marshal Jan 18th 2012 at 01:21 am 5

    In old westerns they they would usually use the same tub they washed their
    cloths in to bath. Carry in water, heat it, then bathe. of course most of the houses
    would be one or two room. So all male folk were sent out doors while the females
    bathed. I would assume they would limit their visitors on bath day as well.

  6. Kilby Jan 18th 2012 at 05:22 am 6

    Everyone seems to be sidestepping the primary issue. If you don’t have running water, then taking baths is only a minor inconvenience compared to having to use an outhouse. Back then, bathing was typically a weekly ordeal (as in “…every Saturday, whether you needed it or not…”), whereas most people need to use a toilet several times each day.

    P.S. My paternal grandparents didn’t get running water installed inside until my dad was a senior in high school. He said it was rather embarrassing whenever he brought someone home after a date.

  7. Bob in Nashville Jan 18th 2012 at 07:48 am 7

    I’ve lived in a place with no running water before. Water was, however available.

    Bathing was an ordeal consisting of heating pans of water until a large pan was warm enough for a decent sponge bath.

    There was an old-fashioned outhouse for the other issue raised.

  8. igeek Jan 18th 2012 at 10:00 am 8

    We don’t need no baths, stinkin’.

  9. ja Jan 18th 2012 at 12:31 pm 9

    I’m with the marshall. If you don’t have running water, you don’t have a room with a tub. If you are bathing in your kitchen, you don’t have guests…

  10. Keera Jan 18th 2012 at 12:45 pm 10

    Kilby @6, having lived in a house where we had an outhouse, I can tell you that’s no inconvenience at all - unless you count running outside in the freezing cold in the dark. But compared to carrying water and heating it and pouring it into a tub and eventually having to empty said tub (BTDT too), using an outhouse is easy work.

  11. George P Jan 19th 2012 at 06:26 pm 11

    I was very young when we visited my great grandmother, but she had no running water. I didn’t have to haul water into the house (and, when I was very young, I got to use a little honey pot, so I didn’t even have to go outside), but I could see that hauling water into the house for cooking and bathing was a much bigger pain than going to the outhouse.

    Later they added a pump to the well, so she had running water in the kitchen, but there never was an inside toilet while she was in the house.

  12. Meryl A Jan 25th 2012 at 02:51 am 12

    I am an American Rev War era reenactor. People are confused by bathing in period and think that no one washed. One only immersed one’s self in water once or twice a year. In addition to needing to get that much water & heat it, think about winter with no heat other than a fireplace. However one did bathe frequently, often daily, bathing being using soap and water to wash one’s body.

    Women wore a cap unless their hair was “dressed” as it helped keep grease & dirt out of their hair due to the problem with washing it especially in winter. It was common for those of means to have a wig (or several wigs) made - men & women. One’s head would be shaved for this so the wig would fit properly. In addition to it being fashionable, it helped with the hair washing problem.

    Laundry was done weekly or bi-weekly depending on how many items one owned. White fabric was used for women’s shifts and men’s shirts (both of which also functioned as sleepwear) - underpants just coming in in the 1780’s for men only, as well as sheets, etc. as it could be boiled for washing. Dyes were not stable & would lighten when washed. Laundry was not done while bathing.

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