> >Hi all, > >I received this today and wanted to share it. Author unknown. If anyone > >knows where this came from I'd love to give proper credit. > >Lorien Gunsallus > > > >Life in the 1500's----- > > > > Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare. She married at the > >age of 26. This is really unusual for the time. Most people married > >young, like at the age of 11 or 12. Life was not as romantic as we may > >picture it. Here are some examples: > > > > Anne Hathaway's home was a 3 bedroom house with a small parlor, which > >was seldom used (only for company), kitchen, and no bathroom. > > > > Mother and Father shared a bedroom. Anne had a queen sized bed, but > >did not sleep alone. She also had 2 other sisters and they shared the bed > > also with 6 servant girls. (this is before she married) They didn't > >sleep like we do lengthwise but all laid on the bed crosswise. > > > > At least they had a bed. The other bedroom was shared by her 6 > >brothers and 30 field workers. They didn't have a bed. Everyone just > wrapped > >up > >in their blanket and slept on the floor. They had no indoor heating so > >all the extra bodies kept them warm. > > > >They were also small people, the men only grew to be about 5'6" and > >the women were 4'8". SO in their house they had 27 people living. > > > > Most people got married in June. Why? They took their yearly bath in > > May, so they were till smelling pretty good by June, although they were > >starting to smell, so the brides would carry a bouquet of flowers to > >hide their b.o. > > > > Like I said, they took their yearly bath in May, but it was just a big > > tub that they would fill with hot water. The man of the house would get > >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 pretty thick. Thus, the saying, "don't throw the baby out > >with the bath water," it was so dirty you could actually lose someone in > it. > > > > I'll describe their houses a little. You've heard of thatch roofs, > >well that's all they were. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood > >underneath. They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So > >all the > > pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived > >in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals > >would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying, "it's raining cats > >and dogs." Since there was nothing to stop things from falling into the > >house they would just try to clean up a lot. But this posed a real problem > >in the > >bedroom where bugs and other droppings from animals could really mess > >up your nice clean bed, so they found if they would make beds with big > >posts and hang a sheet over the top it would prevent that problem. That's > >where those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies came from. > > > >When you came into the house you would notice most times that the floor > >was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, that's where > >the saying "dirt poor" came from. The wealthy would have slate > >floors. That was fine but in the winter they would get slippery when they > >got wet. > >So they started to spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. > >As the winter wore on they would just keep adding it and adding it > >until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. SO > they > >put a piece of wood at the entry way, a "thresh hold". > > > > In the kitchen they would cook over the fire, they had a fireplace in > >the kitchen/parlor, that was seldom used and sometimes in the master > >bedroom. > > > > They had a big kettle that always hung over the fire and every day they > > would light the fire and start adding things to the pot. Mostly they > >ate vegetables, they didn't get much meat. They would eat the stew for > >dinner then leave the leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and > >then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew would have food in it > >that had been in there for a month! Thus the rhyme: peas porridge hot, > peas > >porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old." > > > > Sometimes they could get a hold of some pork. They really felt special > >when that happened and when company came over they even had a rack in > >the parlor where they would bring out some bacon and hang it to show it > off. > > That 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 they > >would all sit around and "chew the fat." > > > > If you had money your plates were made out of pewter. Sometimes some of > > their food had a high acid content and some of the lead would leach out > >into the food. They really noticed it happened with tomatoes. So they > > stopped eating tomatoes, for 400 years. > > > > Most people didn't have pewter plates though, they all had trenchers, > > that was a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. They > >never washed their boards and a lot of times worms would get into the wood. > > After eating off the trencher with worms they would get "trench mouth." > > > > If you were going traveling and wanted to stay at an Inn they usually > > provided the bed but not the board. > > > >The bread was divided according to status. The workers would get the > >burnt bottom of the loaf, the family would get the middle and guests > >would get the top, or the "upper crust". > > > >They also had lead cups and when they would drink their ale or whiskey. > >The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. > > > >They would be walking along the road and here would be someone knocked > >out and they thought they were dead. So they would pick them up and take > them > >home and get them ready to bury. They realized if they were too slow > >about it, the person would wake up. Also, maybe not all of the people > >they were burying were dead. So they would lay them out on the kitchen > table > >for > >a couple of days, the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait > >and > >see if they would wake up. That's where the custom of holding a "wake" > >came from. > > > > Since England is so old and small they started running out of places to > >bury people. So they started digging up some coffins and would take > >their bones to a house and re-use the grave. They started opening > >these coffins and found some had scratch marks on the inside. > > > > One out of 25 coffins were that way and they realized they had still > >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. That is how the saying "graveyard shift" was > >made. > > > > If the bell would ring they would know that someone was "saved by the > > bell" or he was a "dead ringer". > > > > > >==== TNMAURY Mailing List ==== > >Researching the following Maury County surnames: BINKLEY - BOOKER - > CASKEY - CRAIG - CRAWFORD - CREWS - DABBS - DANIELS - DEMASTUS - DIAL - > DILLEHAY - DODSON - DOOLEY - DUGGER - demastus@aol.com > > > > > > > > > > > --part2_66d9aa3e.24586a1c_boundary-- > > --part1_66d9aa3e.24587f9e_boundary-- > >