[drewprops]

I'm watching an old BBC show on the Golden Age of Ballooning and am surprised at how seldom the Mongolfier Brothers bathed. Anyone else seen this show?



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[Chinney]

It's amazing how little almost everyone bathed back then. There was a saying suggesting that you did not need anything more than 'a bath when you're born, and a bath when you die'. It was a smelly time.

[Banana]

Two things.

1) I suspect that even though it may appear to us quite filthy and smelly, I doubt it was the case to them- the odors wouldn't be considered offensive if it was considered the norm to the point that you don't smell it anymore.

2) I know there is a ad by Goulds water pump with Norman Rockwell painting backing in what? 30s? 40s? Anyway, the focus point of the ad was a kid was cleaning himself off after a bath. The text (recall that ads in that today could be well four-six paragraphs long) celebrated the virtues of cleanliness, bragging how America was the cleanest nation in the world, requiring many, many gallons of water to flow to support the habit that nobody else in the world had, bathing daily.

When I saw that ads, I was kind of horrified to think that they were actively promoting using more water, not because of the want to be clean, but rather because it seems to be encouraging excessive consumption (e.g. bathing instead of showering, letting water running freely in faucet, etc.) in the days when the modernization was still occurring and things were a bit more stratified.

Anyway, just a thought.

[drewprops]

LOL - I believe I may have been too obscure...


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[Banana]

*hangs head in shame*

[Chinney]

Well I was the one who responded seriously in the first place, despite having seen most of Python. Actually, moving the sketch into a "serious" panel discussion on bathing ("and now, BBC1 presents "Bathing Today" with your host Reginald Waterstone"), would also have been like them.

[Chinney]

My comment about lack of bathing, and about smelly people back then, does reflect the reality though. And other people did notice. That's the reason perfume was developed. Also, snuff apparently helped mask the ability of one's nose to notice the offending smells.