Trousseau?
Once upon a time, many moons ago, a young lady who was courting might turn her thoughts to assembling her trousseau. Trousseau derives from the French trousse, which means a bundle
A collection of linen, household goods, clothing and valuables like jewellery or silver would be stored in a ‘bottom drawer’ in the UK (a hope chest in USA or glory box in Australia.) It was the equivalent in some ways of a dowry, an indication of how much material wealth a woman would bring to a marriage – the richer the bride’s family, the more valuable the contents of the trousseau.
The custom persisted until the middle of the twentieth century, when it had evolved from dowry-like contents to items suitable for setting up home with the lucky suitor.
Anyway, what brought this to mind was the bottom drawer in the chest of drawers in my bedroom. It is the place where odd socks go to hibernate. When a pair of socks is called for because the housekeeper hasn’t performed her duties efficiently and there are no longer any matched socks left in the Master’s top drawer, it is to the bottom drawer one hastens. Surely there must be a pair there?
Depending on who is conducting the search, singles may find their appropriate partners, or be approximately paired with something similar. That is, if I am looking, the married pairs will match exactly. If Barry is searching, ‘They’ll do,’ he’ll say as two mismatched socks are thrust together. That drives me mad. I know it doesn’t matter, ‘Who cares? Who’s looking?’ but it matters to me and that is why my bottom drawer is full of odd socks. They’re not mine – I don’t wear socks.
The funny thing is that people can now buy deliberately mismatched socks, if they feel so inclined. They do look as though they belong together, strangely, unlike the pairs concocted from my bottom drawer.
Mismatched socks are a symbol for World Down Syndrome Day, on 21st March. They represent the third copy of chromosome 21 which those with Down’s Syndrome possess.
Trousseau has two other meanings, one medical (Trousseau’s sign) and one connected with wine, where it refers to a red wine grape, also known as Bastardo or Merenzao.
We took a Lane Cedar Chest from an old house up to Katie, for her hope chest. It is still a custom for the Amish.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely that the custom lives on.
DeleteI always think of little kids who are dressing and have trouble with socks.
ReplyDeleteIt's a wonder that small children ever manage to dress themselves.
DeleteI love that word. I used to think about what I would put in my trousseau.
ReplyDeleteOdd socks. I swear my washing machine eats one of them every time I put a week worth in!
I call my washing machine the divorce machine - socks go in in pairs and come out separately!
DeleteDo you find socks uncomfortable to wear?
ReplyDeleteI don't usually find them uncomfortable, just a little unnecessary unless I'm going out in very cold weather. Then I borrow some of Barry's! (matched, of course!)
DeleteI've always been in charge and lost socks don't happen under my watch, let alone mismatched socks.
ReplyDeleteHere, and no doubt there is a connection, a glory box could also be a piece of furniture, perhaps best described as glass cabinet for displaying the good china etc. If it was half glass, the lower cupboards might have other items that make up a bride's glory box.
Glory box is never a term I've used, but your use of it is interesting.
DeleteOdd socks? Not in my house.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have much in my "glory box" which was a shelf in one of mum's cabinets, but I do remember a set of saucepans, one of which I still have today, a set of wooden-handled kitchen knives, and about a dozen tea towels (dish towels). A friend I worked with had a much more extensive trousseau, she began working at age 15 and by the time she married at 19, had acquired everything a person would need in a home of her own including rolls of toilet paper, and baby things. One entire room of her parents home held this bounty.
Your friend was commendably well organised. Her parents must have wondered what to do with the extra room when she married and moved out.
DeleteA lovely read and it did make me smile. We have a mismatched draw too. Where do all those socks disappear to? I think there is a little beastie inside the washing machine that gobbles them up!
ReplyDelete'drawer' ;)
DeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one to suffer the sock disaster!
DeleteI suppose at a time when young women married a few years after finishing school, and may have worked in an office until finding the love of their lives, savings were non existent. If both the young couple reach their wedding ceremony with just clothes, books and a computer, the trousseau will be empty.
ReplyDeleteThankfully our wedding guests gave us crockery, cutlery and linen.
Nowadays, when many couples chop and change as the wind blows, or so it seems, a trousseau is unnecessary, as households are blended then disassambled.
DeleteWedding presents I supposed replaced the gathering of things together for the bottom drawer. Today rather than us choosing gifts from a long list of wedding presents, the married couple probably prefers money.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Thelma. Money is more useful, really.
DeleteI recently read somewhere about a man who buys twenty or so pairs of identical socks at a time so that he never needs to worry about "odd socks". When they wear out he replaces them with another batch of identical socks.
ReplyDeleteWise man!
DeleteStrangely, never in my life (so far) have I had single socks. Not once in what must have been thousands of cycles in the washing machine have I lost a sock to the parallel universe. Therefore, the socks and tights drawer in the chest of drawers in my bedroom contains just what I actually wear.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you wear on your feet then, instead of socks?
I didn‘t know that mismatched socks are a symbol for Down Syndrome.
When I turned 14, my godmother and other people gave me boring presents such as towels and tablecloths - all in view of a future household of my own. Well, I was 14, it was the year 1982, and I would have much preferred money or books. It wasn‘t until I was 21 that I moved out of my parents‘ house.
I wear knee-high 'tights' rather than socks. I do wear thick socks inside trainers when I go out walking.
DeleteI smiled at the thought of you at 14 being given household items.
The dowry was still an accepted tradition here in Greece in the 70s. My M in law told me, often enough, that my brothers should have bought a house for me when I married her son. I laugh now...
ReplyDeleteI have a box of odd, and holey socks, and use them for dusting. And then throw them away! A sock on your hand is an excellent duster
A house is a tall order and a very creditable dowry. If only!
DeleteYes, socks make good dusters, should I ever feel the urge to dust . . .
We have loads of mis-matched bright coloured socks, every year we purchase new pairs. The school where George attends, has a mis-matched sock day for all the children on the date nearest to 21st March. Downs syndrome awareness is huge, he is thriving in main stream school, thanks to the love of the children and staff. We always ensure socks are matched, if we find an odd sock it's popped back into the washing machine to wait for it's match.
ReplyDeleteWherever possible, inclusion is preferable. We all learn from each other. It's so good to know that George is thriving.
DeleteI did not know the symbolism for the mismatched socks so that is very interesting to learn.
ReplyDelete😊
DeleteI haven't heard the word trousseau in ages -- in fact maybe I've only read it in books. As a child I was always mystified by what a "hope chest" was supposed to be, too. They seem like quite antiquated concepts, given that nowadays most prospective brides & grooms get showered with gift cards.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the mismatched socks! I didn't realize the Down Syndrome connection.
I had wondered what a hope chest was, too. It sounds so historic, somehow.
DeleteI have black socks that have a different color band around the toe area. Every now and then I will grab two with different colored bands. I can't put them on that way. No one sees it but I know the bands don't match.
ReplyDeleteDowns Syndrome awareness is on my birthday. I never knew about that.
I know the coloured bands are meant to help, but they don't!
DeleteI was unaware of the Downs Syndrome date or about the trousseau syndrome, or that the word trousseau meant the things in the hope chest. I thought it meant the clothing for a bride. My grandmothers hope chest, from 1900, resides with my niece, the historian and keeper of everything she ever owned, in order to save it from ME because I get rid of anything I don't use. my delight as a child was to sit on the floor and take things out of her hope chest, examine and put them back. I also did that with her drawers in her giant desk from the bakery they once owned. all treasures.
ReplyDeletenow her hope chest hold photos of our entire family on the maternal side. its safe with Amanda but what will happen when she is gone.
I do not wear socks except when the temps outside get below 70, I wear house socks with no shoes. so far have never lost any, and Bob has socks that are so old they don't make them any more, none of which are lost because he never wears socks. he retired 27 years ago and socks went away and never came back... we do live in south Florida so that's ok.
love this post
It’s a Hope Chest in Canada, or it was when it mattered. As for socks, I seem to be missing two pairs. This is wash day. Maybe they will emerge.
ReplyDeleteWe're all different. If everyone kept everything we wouldn't be able to move. On the other hand, if no-one kept anything, history would be a mystery.
ReplyDeleteA nightmare for me this "Trousseau" ! It started when I was 14 when I made my confirmation (protestant church) I had to choose one set of cutlery ! With 14 ! I didn't think at all about marriage, boys were for fun. Fortunately I choose a set of cutlery in silver (which becomes black after a while) but it was a timeless model which is still up to date today ! And I used it maybe 6 times in over 50 years ! Fortunately when I had the complete cutlery, my parents gave up, they realized that my target was not the marriage ! The socks were no problem, I had my side and Rick his, sometimes my socks escaped into his drawer and when by miracle one was missing, I used the other for cleaning of throw it away.
ReplyDeleteAbove story is from me ! I lift my anonymity !
ReplyDeleteHello Ingrid, similarly here - I was invited (not made) to choose silver cutlery to collect, starting with my confirmation at age 14. I chose a design that was beautiful in 1982, neither overly modern nor too oldfashioned, and I still have it in daily use 4 decades later.
DeleteI think I might prefer a bottle of a nice Trousseau!!!
ReplyDeleteLots of odd socks in our house- goodness knows why I hang onto them or how we get so many, does the washing machine eat them!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Your post brought back many memories of my own wedding many years ago and some of the gifts I received. One of them was a cedar chest from my in-laws. It had passed through their family over a number of years and it now resides at the foot of my bed and is filled with all manner of things that have no other place to go.
ReplyDeleteMy mother started my hope chest when I was 10 years old. I had no interest in such things so was a great disappointment to my mother. When engaged to Himself, I didn't want a hope chest. I now have my mother's hope chest which is filled with my wedding gown, table linens which Ma gave me, and all manner of stuff to be saved.
ReplyDeleteEllie and I married in the Dark Ages (1963) when many people were wed quite young. One of our friends spent her 21st birthday weeping because she was such an "old maid." When Ellie and I married she was 27, and her Hope Chest (a Lane cedar chest) given to her by her parents and stocked with handmade linens by her mother) had morphed into her Hopeless Chest until it eventually had become her God-Knows-When Chest. Her mother had embroidered pillowcases and crocheted entire tablecloths and made many doilies for table tops and sofa backs. The doilies had been known earlier in the 20th century as antimacassars, macassar being a greasy hair dressing used by suitors of the day. Most of the things made by Ellie's mother have been sitting in the cedar chest for sixty or seventy years doing nothing. The children don't want them. Such a shame, all that love gone to waste.
ReplyDeleteI have a whole drawer full of mismatched socks too.
My grandma had a hope chest. This was interesting info, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI have my mother's hope chest. I don't know if she filled it with anything. I like to think she did. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteIn my family it was known as the bottom drawer and bed linen, towels etc. were carefully kept prior to the wedding day. Similarly as well as deciding on the wedding dress ... the going away outfit had to be considered!
ReplyDeleteNow onto socks! Being a sock wearer I do have quite a few and I do take care to make sure they match!
I didn't know that mismatched socks are a symbol for World Down Syndrome Day, on 21st March...
Hope your weekend is going well, at least most in the UK have seen sunshine today.
All the best Jan
Can you imagine if the world held a Mismatched Sock Yard Sale? (Not sure what yard sales are called in your country) Maybe we'd all find the mates to our mismatched socks, which no doubt have migrated elsewhere in search for whatever makes socks happy.
ReplyDelete