Oh.  You know me.  I have this big interest in knowing where “sayings” came from.

Like any of them.   Wet behind the ears.  He kicked the can.  She found the kitten’s mittens.  The last one… I just made up.  But nonetheless.

One that I’ve always liked to say is…   “Oh.  Just you mind your own beeswax.”

Now, I have read that “Mind your own beeswax” was a phrase used by women in the colonial period.  Hard-working women, no doubt.  There was no electric back in the day… hence all the candles.  And… unless you were stinking rich, you had to make your very own candles.

Women would  stand around together…. next to the fire stirring the wax from the bee’s endeavors.  Now…. it wasn’t like a big bunch of the women from the community.  Nope.  They all lived on farms… far away from one another.

It would be more like a bunch of sisters from the same farm.  So……they would stand around stirring the wax.  But…. they had to be careful not to let the wax or fire burn their huge billowing cotton dresses or long, long, locks of hair.

So when one of them would comment on the job another one was doing…. they’d look up from their wax pot…. and say emphatically….. OH!  Heaven’s to Mergatroid.   Just you mind your own beeswax.”  (Okay, again, I made the Mergatroid thing up…. but I have researched all the other stuff.)

But now it appears, this theory has been blown out of the water.

By none other than…. Cavemen.

So.  Jump back about 7,000 years or so.  It appears Cavemen had a bit of problems with holes in their teeth. Not from donuts or chocolate milk.  Not likely.  They were real Neanderthals when it came to their chompers.  Chewing on leather and rocks and sticks and things… to make tools.  And … as we know today… cavities can be excruciating.

There is new evidence which suggests that prehistoric man used a surprisingly sophisticated technique to deal with the pain: Dental fillings. A team of scientists in Italy has identified a 6,500-year-old cracked tooth repaired with beeswax, suggesting that our early ancestors knew a thing or two about dental work.

So… when they would walk out of Dr. Thubs office after being packed with the waxy filling… the kind, albeit hairy….. dentist would call out…  “Now… just you mind your own beeswax.”

And there you have it.  Phraseology.

But.  Which ever way it goes… whichever version turns out to be true… it confirms what I’ve know all along.

No matter who we are… we all should be keeping our own attention…. on our own fatty acids.

I think that everybody has a right to their own thoughts, their own feelings and their own private moments, if they want them. – K. Heighl