The 1500’s; Got this from my better half’s father,
The 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
the1500s:
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. Hence the custom today
of carrying a bouquet when getting
married.
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 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 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 floor to help keep their
footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you
opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was
placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh
hold.
(Getting quite an
education, aren't
you?)
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 st ew 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 high acid content caused some of the lead
to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning 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 whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers
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 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.
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