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From:
Subject: Excerpt Of History
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 19:25:23 EDT


Next time you're washing your hands and the water temperature isn't just
how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about
the 1500's.
"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.
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 and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained in became
slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the
saying, "Its raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a
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, a "thresh hold."
In those 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
awhile. 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 a 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.
Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood
with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from stale
bread which was so old and hard that they could be used for quite some time.
Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood
and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench
mouth."
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 whiskey. The combination would
sometimes knock them out for a couple 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 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."
In England they 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, one out of twenty-five 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."

And who ever said history was boring?????????????



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