[Wardad]

I don't know how true it is but it sounds good .... fun reading ..

Here's some stuff you never read in your history books


LIFE IN THE 1500'S


The next time you wash 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 married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they soon started 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 nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women nd finally the children. Last of all were 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 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 a 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 plain 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 floors to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance to hold the thresh. 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 not much meat. They'd eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.Some- times 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."

When they could obtain pork, it made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they'd hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They'd cut off a little to share with guests and all sat around and "chewed the fat."

Those with money owned 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 "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 round, eat & drink and wait to see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "Wake."

England is old and small so the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they'd dig up coffins and take the bones to a "bone-house" & reuse the grave. When reopening the coffins, many were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they'd been burying people alive. So they tied a string on the wrist of the "corpse", lead it through the coffin.up to 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."