the birds and the bees

[Victor Steinbok]

You're just not hip, Joel. " 'rental units" and " 'rents" are common
contractions referring to the 1990s+ PArents. Actually, it's not even
1990s--I believe, there is a mention of "dinner with the 'rents" in Repo
Man, which is VERY 1980s.

VS-)

On 9/28/2011 7:10 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 9/28/2011 04:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 1:33 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> Colonial parents
>> Did the ordinary colonial 'rental unit enjoy the kind of privacy that
>> would have permitted them to keep sexual intercourse a secret till the
>> chidren were approaching puberty?
> I don't think there were many "rental units".  And my feeling is that
> in most homes in the 18th century the children had a separate bedroom
> from the parents (at least in the American colonies).  What might
> have been heard I can't speak to.  And most families had farm animals
> (even in the "cities" a home might have a cow), so observation of
> animal copulation perhaps was the common medium of transmission of knowledge.
>
> Joel

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