Housewifery Skills

I was thinking the other day about the way my husband refers to me as his bride -after 25 years of marriage. It occurred to me that I do not reciprocate this by calling him my groom - which made me laugh, but then led me down a new path, thinking about how the male terms for spouse - husband, groom - have or share their source with farming and livestock terms. Animal husbandry, a groom being a man who works with horses.

We don't find bride or wife in the same sources. There isn't much wifery of any kind in the modern world outside of midwifery. We had our three daughters at home with a midwife but I very well know that this is not a typical scenario in the U.S. today.

The only language I insisted on at our wedding was that the ministers declaration be of Husband & Wife rather than Man & Wife - I always found the latter rather demeaning. The wonderful man who presided over our wedding was so nervous about being outside his home church that he said various things that were not in the book at all - afflication for affection was the one we all remember! He got lost and had to start over and it was still one of the shortest wedding ceremonies ever.

All this serves as an intro to this rather interesting quiz that I found on Jennifer's blog today:

44 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

Oh, my. Only average...

It's a funny test - have a look!