ANST - Life in the 1500's ...Lies... all Lies!! (but funny!)

[CRICKETRED at aol.com]

<< Life in the 1500's
 
 Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May
 
 and were still smelling pretty good by June.  However, they were starting to
 
 smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.
 
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 Baths equaled 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".
 
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 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
 
 pets... dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, 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."
 
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 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.  So, they found if they made beds with big posts and
 
 hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem.  Hence those beautiful
 
 big 4 poster beds with canopies. I wonder if this is where we get the
 
 saying.  Good night and don't let the bed bugs bite........
 
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 The floor was dirt.  Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence
 
 the saying "dirt poor."  The wealthy had slate floors which would get
 
 slippery in the winter when wet. So they spread thresh 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 at the entry way, hence a "thresh hold".
 
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 They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the fire.
 
 Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.  They mostly ate
 
 vegetables and didn't 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 in there for a
 
 month. Hence the rhyme:  peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas
 
 porridge in the pot nine days old."
 
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 Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that
 
 happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and hang
 
 it to show it off.  It was a sign of wealth and that a man "could really
 
 bring home the bacon."  They would cut off a little to share with guests and
 
 would all sit around and "chew the fat."
 
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 Those with money had plates made of pewter.  Food with a high acid content
 
 caused some of the lead to leach onto the food. This happened most often
 
 with  tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes... for 400 years.
 
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 Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had trenchers - a piece of wood
 
 with the middle scooped out like a bowl.  Trenchers were never washed and a
 
 lot of times worms got into the wood.  After eating off wormy trenchers,
 
 they would get "trench mouth."
 
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 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
 
 "uppercrust".
 
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 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".
 
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 England is old and small, and they started running out of places to bury
 
 people.  So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a house
 
 and re-use the grave.  In reopening these coffins, one 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 their
 
 wrist and 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 to listen
 
 for the bell.  Hence on the "graveyard shift" they would know that someone
 
 was "saved by the bell" or he was a "dead ringer".
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