History is boring for many...not for me....
The next time you are washing your hands and complain
because the water
temperature isn't just how you like it, think about
how things used to
be..... Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took
their yearly bath in
May
and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they
were starting to
smell
so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the
body odor. Hence
the
custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting
married.
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Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the
house
had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all
the other sons and
men,
then the women and finally the children-last of all
the babies. By then
the
water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in
it. Hence the
saying,
"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
* * * * * * Houses had thatched roofs-thick
straw-piled high, with no
wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get
warm, so all the
dogs,
cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the
roof. When it
rained
it became slippery and sometimes the animals would
slip and fall off
the
roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
* * * * * * There was nothing to stop things from
falling into the
house.
This posed real problem in the bedroom where bugs and
other droppings
could
really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with
big posts and a
sheet
hung over the top afforded some protection. That's
how canopy beds
came
into existence.
* * * * * * The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had
something other
than
dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor."
* * * * * * The wealthy had slate floors that would
get slippery in the
winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the
floor to help
keep
their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept
adding more thresh
until
when you opened the door it would all start slipping
outside. A piece
of
wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying
a "thresh hold."
* * * * * * In those old days, they cooked in the
kitchen with a big
kettle
that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit
the fire and added
things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did
not get much
meat.
They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers
in the pot to
get
cold overnight and then start over the next day.
Sometimes the stew
had
food in it that had been there for quite a while.
Hence the rhyme,
"Peas
porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in
the pot nine days
old."
* * * * * * Sometimes they could obtain pork, which
made them feel
quite
special. When visitors came over, they would hang up
their bacon to
show
off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring
home the bacon."
They
would cut off a little to share with guests and would
all sit around
and
chew the fat."
* * * * * * Those with money had plates made of
pewter. Food with high
acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the
food, causing lead
poisoning and death. This happened most often with
tomatoes, so for
the
next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered
poisonous.
* * * * * * Bread was divided according to status.
Workers got the
burnt
bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and
guests got the top,
or
"upper crust."
* * * * * * Lead cups were used to drink ale or
whisky. The
combination
would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days.
Someone walking
along
the road would take them for dead and prepare them
for burial. They
were
laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days
and the family
would
gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if
they would wake up.
Hence the custom of holding a "wake."
* * * * * * England is old and small and the local
folks started
running out
of places to bury people. So they would dig up
coffins and would take
the
bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When
reopening these
coffins, 1
out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on
the inside and
they
realized they had been burying people alive. So they
thought they
would tie
a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through
the coffin and up
through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would
have to sit out
in
the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to
listen for the bell;
thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was
considered a "dead
ringer."
Now if you have read till here then you sure are interested in history. And for the guys who read the first and last line and summarize try again.
