A Wee Little History Lesson

[Studlover (imported)]

Thought you might enjoy this

John Stevens

Subject: A history lesson!

A WEE LITTLE HISTORY LESSON .....

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.

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 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 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 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 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".

And that's the truth...(and whoever said that

History was boring?!)