HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>
>
>Maybe, following the war, crackers were shipped in larger barrels?  Or,
>without reference to the Civil War, was the reference to hardtack as
>part of ships' rations, with the crackers being stored in barrels?  In
>the old movies, the cracker barrel in the country store is fairly large,
>at least big enough for two male persons of advanced years (this is PC
>for "geezers") to play checkers on top of.  A stereotype--any reality?
>
Pedantic or just silly, I know, but wasn't it just the checkerboard that
sat atop the cracker barrel?

Brian Siegel