Bed bugging hot shots

                In our recent travels, I have run across two familiar sayings that have taken on clearer meaning for me:  “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” and “hot shot.”  In touring historical sites in the South, we learned both Confederate and word history.

                People have been wished off to bed for centuries with the blessing, “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”  I always took the “sleep tight” part to mean “sleep snuggly” or “sleep safely.”  However, the phrase “sleep tight” actually means something entirely different.  We toured the Stonewall Jackson house in Lexington, Virginia and, in the bedroom, saw the mattress resting on a rope weaving.  I have seen these precursors of box springs before, and I knew that people kept keys to tighten the ropes to keep the mattress firm.  I did not know that “sleep tight” refers to tightening the bed ropes in order to sleep on a firm mattress.

                “Don’t let the bed bugs bite” is quite literal.  Bed bugs can come from a variety of sources.  In the olden days when mattresses were stuffed with straw and such, bed bugs came from those materials.  In parts of the South, people used Spanish moss, which contained chiggers (nasty biting bugs), to stuff mattresses.  Occasionally, I like to have fun with this part of the saying by wishing, “Sleep tight, don’t bite the bed bugs!” Henry Ford also used Spanish moss to stuff the seats of his early automobiles.  In fact, the phrase  “you’re itchin’ for a Ford” came from the chiggers.  Spanish moss also made for a “bumpy” ride not attributable to ruts in the road but bugs in the seats.

                If I have bugged you sufficiently at this point, you may want to get out a can of Hot Shot.  If not, keep reading.  I always thought of “hot shot” as a slang term for someone who had considerable prestige or influence, or at least thought so.  In explaining the conflict at Fort Sumter, the docent informed us that the Confederate army fired many cannon shots over a long period of time at the fort, to little avail.  Cold cannon balls cannot do much damage on thick brick walls or even inside the fort.  Finally, the Confederates realized that if they heated the cannon balls and then fired them, they would do considerably more damage.  Heated cannon balls fell onto the store of gun powder and caused an explosion which burned up part of the living quarters.  From this perspective, a hot shot is someone who can make things happen.

                As our tour winds down, I look forward to sleeping on my own firm mattress which does not require a key and we only encounter bed bugs when one of us irritates the other!