ES - todays history lesson

Damon Huse alric at texas.net
Thu Jun 17 14:37:18 PDT 1999



I don't know how true this is but it's interesting.

	Alric

> LIFE IN THE 1500s
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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".
> 
> 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, and 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 them from falling into the house.  This posed
> a real problem in the bedroom where the 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.
> 
> 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."
> 
> 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."
> 
> 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."
> 
> Those with money had plates of pewter.  Food with a high acid content
caused
> some lead to leach into the food.  This happened most often with
tomatoes,
> so they stopped eating tomatoes . . . for 400 years.
> 
> 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."
> 
> Bread was divided according to status.  Workers got the burnt bottom of
> the loaf, the family got the middle, and the guest 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 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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