September 3, 2009

In August my family gathered in Maryland for the memorial service for my mother. I grew up there and wanted to say a good bye to my mother and to my beloved Chesapeake Bay so my husband and I extended our trip and drove across the bay bridge to the Eastern Shore. We stopped in the little town of Oxford on the Delmarva Peninsula. We chose Oxford because it is historic and not at all touristy. After walking around town and visiting the history museum, we bought sandwiches at the little grocery store on the main street.

In traditional Western cultures, below the rank of aristocrats, romantic and sexual impulsiveness was a major threat to social standing. The punishment in terms of class standing for out-of-wedlock births was so harsh that the illegitimacy rate among women in England in 1200-1800 was stable at around 3-4%, even though women didn't marry on average until age 24 to 26.