I mean that (the blog title) both sarcastically and seriously. I’ve been completely bogged down this week trying to do all of our documentation for Revolutionary War Reenacting. To be fair, I’ve learned soooooo much this week alone. So really, I think this is a pretty important thing to do for a reenactor. But with my two toddlers (we’ll count Jack as a toddler since he is just as destructive as Ginny…if not more) completely pulling apart my house while I’m trying desperately to ignore them and search for trestle tables online, well, it’s been a bit of a challenge.

That said, I am so excited that I just found square wood plates! Oh the little things in life. That’s actually why I’m writing this post– to share this with you. 

We have four wood plates, and they’re square. They’re what we primarily use out at reenactments, so I was getting really frustrated when I couldn’t find anything like them at any of the museums I’ve been sifting through. I found square plates, and I found wooden plates…just not the two together. 

Then, I randomly came across The Historic Dockyard Chatham in England, and they’ve got a square plate that was found on the wrecked HMS Invincible (wrecked in 1758). Apparently, the square plate was issued to a sailor to eat his food off of, and that (here’s the awesome part) is where the phrase “3 square meals a day” came from. 

How cool is that?

I mean, my unit is the Continental Marines, so it’s awesome to find anything we as both land and sea soldiers would have had. So apparently square wooden plates are authentic, and may even be more authentic for us to have. 

Woot!