Weird History ...

my *special friend* shared this recently...
she's such a fun gal - it doesn't surprise me at all that
she found this and wanted to share it with us...



Weird History

Next time you're washing your hands and 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 awhile. 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. . .

(who ever said that History was boring)?


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