Bundling!?!

September 11th, 2008; 7:53 AM

Current mood:amused

US History Encyclopedia: Bundling

Bundling was a mode of courtship during the colonial period. According to this practice, a young couple would go to bed together, either fully dressed or partially dressed, with a "bundling board," or long wooden slab, between them. Sometimes the woman's legs were bound in a tightly fitting "bundling stocking." This custom, inherited from Europe, apparently originated as a matter of convenience and necessity where space and heat were lacking. It became most prevalent in New England, where Puritan parents tried to provide young couples opportunities to court freely while still supervising their conduct. Bundling seems to have declined in the late eighteenth century.