a tale of tails, tenacity, and tedium, as told by me, usually barefoot and bellowing

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Warning: Four Letter Word


I have read my favorite blogs. I have pondered, wondered, and thought, what I will write tonight. I have decided to give you a bit of history and some useless knowledge. Hope you enjoy it. Please do not be offended, the title warned you! And it's not as bad as it sounds.


Have you ever wondered where the word "shit" came from? Well, having nothing better to do, I wondered and then looked it up. It is not a dirty word at all!! Bear with me here.

When we began to settle America, everything had to be shipped...that's right everything. To fertilize a garden you must have manure. It had to be shipped 'cause there wasn't enough here yet. (Now that's another blog!)

They would bale it for shipping within the cargo hold. Several ships blew up with unknown causes until the shipping companies investigated.

The bales of manure were in the bottom of the cargo department, ships would leak a little, salt water and manure makes methane gas. When the sailor would go down to check the cargo, the lantern would ignite the methane gas...poop boom!

There after they stamped the bales of manure Ship High In Transit...shortened to shit...ever after, all manure was called SHIT!

Didn't I say history and worthless knowledge? Now it will not give as much satisfaction when we say Ship High In Transit...SHIT!
PS: Picture has nothing to do with shipping high in transit. These are some of the crystals we found in Mt. Ida, Arkansas during Spring Break.

11 comments:

Tina said...

oh gail, you are too much! sooo ship high in transit...hmmm was there a holy ship high in transit stamp?? Can't wait to see what you investigate next time!

The W.O.W. factor! said...

Lo and behold!
History on my most used word!! So well used, my Mom has stopped trying to make me quit using it...well ShipHighInTransit! Not as fun anymore since I can't get her goat!

SkippyMom said...

This is fascinating! It is soooo funny that "shit" is an acronym and no one realizes it. heehee....I love it!

Psst - Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It really made my day! :D Hugs

allhorsestuff said...

Oh yea!!! When I am mad now..I will shout out Ship High In transit!
Too too funny my fine woman!
sooo how R you doin with 1 chore....any get done? I finally got the dishes done this Am...am trying to post about my last weekend now....

Grammy said...

I love it. I just got a load of ShipHighInTransit yesterday. I even included a picture in my latest post. How did you find this info? Amazing to learn of the past. When I was doing fam tree research. I found a gggreat Uncle was a Teamster. Turned our it was not Union. But a mule team driver. Great post.
Grammy

Unknown said...

Great post. Priceless.

Christy said...

Very interesting! I may have to stop using that word so much.

DesertHen said...

What a great and informative post. Ship High In Transit tends to come out of my mouth at times...=)

Here is your letter so you can play along...."F" Follow the directions on my blog....."F" is for fun....=)

Have a great day!

C-ingspots said...

HA!!! LOVED IT!!! Gail, you are too funny and sooo smart too. I will definitely have to pass this little tidbit of knowledge on to my fellow historians. Sooo classic. One question - how do you ever think up this stuff to explore??? Inquiring minds you know...

Carla said...

WOW!
Still not gonna let my little ones say it:)
Thanks for doing the 'research' on this...mmm...S-H-*-T:)

LilliStJohn said...

haha loved the story and laughed at the "poop boom" - I loved this :)

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