Food From Colonial Times: Something To Bite My Teeth Into

by Marianne Ruane

(originally posted in April 2013; recreated in August 2015)

Teeth whitening is all the rage now; braces are popular for children and adults, and in general, Americans are known the world over for their bright white, straight teeth. Back in the late 1700s though, Americans were lucky to have teeth. “[T]he women, generally very pretty, are often deprived of these precious ornaments (teeth) at eighteen or twenty years of age…"¹ A visiting Frenchman, one Monsieur Robin, attributed this toothless affliction of American colonial women to eating hot bread, particularly corn meal biscuits, which the French who visited the new country complained wouldn’t even be eaten by their army. An exaggeration, perhaps, but what did colonial Americans eat? 

Vampires, Sex, and GHOSTS!

by Marianne Ruane
(originally posted Feb. 2013; recreated in August 2015)

When the crypt goes creak,
And the tombstones quake.
Spooks come out for a swinging wake.
Happy haunts materialize,
And begin to vocalize.
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize.**

Grim Philly’s ‘Vampires, Sex, and Ghosts’ tour is not strictly a ghost tour. It’s more a retelling of the seedy side of Philadelphia’s history (colonial prostitution, dead bodies in Washington Square, macabre treatments for 18^th Century diseases, etc.) with a few ghost stories sprinkled in for real/unreal, dead/undead balance. I don’t have paranormal experiences myself, but while leading the Vampire tour during the 2012 season, several customers had encounters during my tours that defied explanation.