6/25/08

Could Someone Tell Me Why?

I’ve never claimed to be a domestic goddess or a domestic engineer – or anything else domestic. This may be why I question certain things.
For example, why do we make up beds? Is it because our own moms told us to make ‘em up? Is it because “everybody else does it”? After all, we get out of bed in the morning and get back into the bed that evening. [Actually, maybe we’re getting back onto the bed rather than into the bed.]
Ancient Egyptians used beds for more than sleeping. The bed was a place for eating meals and for social entertaining! (Can you imagine what folks would think these days if told someone was entertaining in bed?) For the Egyptians, maybe it was important to make up beds with covers before eating so that crumbs wouldn’t be in the way when it was time to sleep once again.
Apparently the very first beds were shallow or low chests. People put straw and other materials in the chests to help soften the surface. It seems that King Tut was the first to have a bed that was raised off of the floor.
At some point, fabric covering was added, most likely to soften the surface or to protect skin from the roughness of straw and such materials. Once those materials became mattresses, I’m guessing the fabric covering was used to keep the mattresses clean.
One source I checked defines “bedding” as material placed above the mattress for warmth, which explains why we have top sheets, blankets, spreads and such.
All of this information – but nothing to tell me WHY we make up beds.
When my children (Tiffany, Tree & Mandy) were young, they didn’t want to make up beds either. Inherited attitudes, perhaps. Anyway, they all kept their beds permanently “made” and slept on sleeping bags on top of the bedding. Then, each morning, they simply rolled up their sleeping bags.
Making up a bed seems like a waste of time and effort to me. So much for domesticity.

3 comments:

Eve said...

Well, you have a very interesting blog. I was just clicking around to see if I could find a blog to read and I have been here for awhile. You sure know a lot about beds. LOL

I love your sense of humor. Those fractured poems were neat. : )

Amy said...

I once heard by making your bed (something about it being cozy and warm) you can get bedbugs...if you don't make it you'll less likely! So there are my reasonings!

robwitham said...

I absolutely cannot think of a more "purpose-less" exercise in life than having to make the bed.

Wifey thinks otherwise, saying she likes to crawl into a "fresh bed".

She's never defined that for me. If she did, I wasn't listening. I was too busy simply getting in bed, without the extra distraction of "un-making" it. :)

Rob

 
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