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Cool history???
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 from 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, next all the other sons and men,
next 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 beneath.
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 a bed. A bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded
some protection; hence canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt, and 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 entryway; hence a threshold.
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 leak 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 the 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, 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 real truth...
(Whoever said that History was boring?!)
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