Clothing & Food

What kind of clothes did they wear in the Middle Ages?

Dress in the Middle Ages was very different than today. People wore very fancy clothes. I think that the Middle Ages was creative and interesting. During the 1100’s and 1200’s women wore metal hair nets, veils and draped throat covers called Wimples. Men wore hoods that had long tails called Liripipes. Both men and women wore a type of tunic adopted from the crusaders. The garments were called a surcoat. A surcoat was used in the 1200’s. These knights wore surcoats over metal armor. Wimples were a throat cover worn by Western Europeans. During the 1200’s women wore wimples. Everyone had their own style.

The wimples and the surcoats were very popular in the Middle Ages. Women loved wearing metal hair nets, veils, and draped throat covers which are called wimples. Men loved to wear long hoods. In the Middle Ages men and women liked to be in style.

How does clothing of the 1600’s and the 1700’s compare with today’s clothing?

People in Tarrytown wear different types of clothes today than they did in the seventeenth century. Many women wore petticoats. Dresses curved out from the waist. Men and women wore heeled shoes. Shoes were trimmed with bows. Women’s clothing became simpler in the early 1790’s. Fashionable women wore lightweight cotton dresses. As the years go by clothes become more comfortable.

People in Tarrytown wear different clothes than they wore back then. Women wear pants. People wear jeans. People wear clothes that express themselves. People now wear similar things. Girls and boys dress almost the same. They wear baggy pants. Adult people wear different clothes to work today. Men wear suits to work. Women wear comfortable skirts and dresses. They also wear pants to work, and men may wear jeans to work. People’s clothes are more colorful today than they were back then.

Did they have the same foods back then ?

In the 1800’s through the 1900’s they didn’t have the same foods as we do now. One reason I say this is because different foods come from different cultures. In the 1800’s and 1900’s the Dutch owned Tarrytown. Few if any Hispanics, Italians, Arabs, and Asians lived in the Tarrytowns. As the years passed we were introduced to more foods. The U.S. became more multi-cultural in the 1950’s. After the cultural foods, fast food restaurants started coming into Tarrytown. Back then they only had nice, little quiet restaurants, and you had to be very wealthy to go out to the restaurants.

Another reason I say the food is different from back then is because we have easier ways of making food today. For example we have ovens, microwaves, and toasters; this is much faster than using a fire. The technology has gotten much better, so the food has gotten much better.

When did McDonalds open in Tarrytown ?

McDonalds the industry opened up in 1956. Fast food restaurants were a very new thing back then. People liked this new kind of place. On May 21, 1974 McDonalds opened in Tarrytown. McDonalds was built over a pond named Purdy Pond, next to the train station. The Tarrytowns only has one McDonalds.

How were menus different in the 1700-1800 then today 's?

The menus in the eighteenth century were different because they were very big and long. Some were very fancy and some were not so fancy. They had appetizers, salad, and the main courses. They would have salad with all kinds of salad dressing. The main courses would be steak with potatoes and corn in a bowl. Then they would have a dessert and they could have chocolate or vanilla ice cream. They would have all kinds of fruit such as apples, pears, peaches, green apples, pine apples, and watermelon.

The way they styled the food was totally different from the way we do it now. They put the food on a fancy plate. They also drank wine for different kinds of foods. The kinds of things they would eat with wine are salads and main courses. The prices were very cheap. They would have a hamburger for $1.23 and they would have steak with rice, beans, corn, and a glass of wine for $5.63.

For information about what foods 7th graders like today visit Our Team - Foods website!

Produced by: Neroliza, Elizabeth, Rula and Elina

Information from the Tarrytown Historical Society

Lurie, Alison. The Language of Clothes. New York: Random House, 1981.

Brooks Young, Agatha. Recurring Cycles of Fashion: 1760 - 1937. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1966.

Wilcox, R. Turner. Five Centuries of American Costume. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963.

Hutchinson, Lucille and Theodore. The Centennial History of North Tarrytown. 1974.