Americans did not commonly use forks until after the Civil War..
@flowerchilde (12529)
United States
May 16, 2008 11:20am CST
I heard this recently.. which was something I never thought about before.. I was a little surprised to hear of it! I guess I just assumed forks had been in use much longer! Does this surprise you?
5 responses
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
16 May 08
They have been in use for much longer, just not by everybody. Not even today everybody uses a fork, lol.
Anyhow, silverware (note the 'silver' part) was a luxury item and not available to everybody. Most people used wooden spoons, bread, and their fingers to scoop up the food. However, rich people, the upper class, they used knives and forks. The lower class, even if they had silverware or something close enough, would probably only have used it for special occasions.
2 people like this
@webeishere (36313)
• United States
16 May 08
Now this was FORKING funny. Thanks. 
HAPPY POSTINGS FROM HGRANDPA BOB !!~1 person likes this
@mansha (6298)
• India
17 May 08
I just cheked it out, I had heard when Britishers had come to India with East India Company, locals were afraid to eat with them as they thought since there hands are poisonous that is why they use spoons and forks to eat. It was quite late when they realised the truth.
Here is an interesting article for you to read on forks and Knives
http://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/fork/
@webeishere (36313)
• United States
16 May 08
Now this is an unknown bit of trivia to me. Where did you hear this from? Did they use spoons or their fingers till then I wonder?
HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~
1 person likes this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
20 May 08
..it was a bit of trivia I heard, but no telling where.. I just found out that for a long while people used wooden spoons, bread, and their fingers - I knew about the fingers and bread
. And rich folks had them much sooner than others! (Like most things, I guess!) And the 'common' folk if they had silverware likely only used it for special occasions.. As they caught on, you had to bring your own.. I also found out it was seen as unmanly to use one for awhile.. knives had a pointed end to pick up a chunk of meat, but went rounded when the fork came in..
. And rich folks had them much sooner than others! (Like most things, I guess!) And the 'common' folk if they had silverware likely only used it for special occasions.. As they caught on, you had to bring your own.. I also found out it was seen as unmanly to use one for awhile.. knives had a pointed end to pick up a chunk of meat, but went rounded when the fork came in..