ESSEX-UK-L Archives

Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 1998-10 > 0907643756


From: <>
Subject: Re: Forced Marriages
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 22:15:56 -0500


Gary,
Wasn't Red a national treasure? I really didn't warm up to Bob Hope until he
came to Nam. Have you seen the prices Red's paintings of clowns go for? Now
that he is gone they are going through the roof.
Much is being said about today's unwed teenage pregnancies. It is in some
places an epidemic.
Now my question to the Essex researchers. Were there not just as many - as a
percentage of population - unwed mothers in the 1700's and 1800's as there
are in Essex today? The count would have to include those who were pregnant
when they got married.
You don't have to believe but I swear I once read in a history journal of a
professor who looked at this very issue in a township in Mass circa 1650.
His research of marriages and births disclosed that over 50% of the birth
over the research period occurred less than eight months after the marriage.
This was in Puritan NE.
I am sure there is a Ph'd thesis out there or one in the making such an
mundane subject.
Sincerely,
Jack Terrell

Gary & Bonnie Arnold wrote:

> A bit flippant perhaps, but this reminds me very much of a routine which
> the famous American clown, Red Skelton did, when he was talking about
> his wedding day. "A military wedding it was...at least there were guns
> there..."
>
> gary

This thread: