> Here's a good one for you! > > >Here's some history fun for you. 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 the 1500's, which will also shed light on a few >words & well used phrases: > >Most people got married in June, because they took their yearly bath in May >and still smelled pretty good by June. However, as time passed 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; followed by his sons, and >other men living under the same roof. Then came the women and 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 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, thus >came the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs." > >There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house either. 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 slat 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 entrance-way creating a "thresh >hold." > >In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always >hung over the fire. Ever day they lighted the fire and added things to the >pot. They ate mostly vegetables without much meat. They would eat the stew >for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight, then start >over the next day. Often times the kettle contained the same stew for quite >a while, hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas >porridge in the pot nine days old." > >Families that could obtain pork, considered themselves quite special. When >visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was an > was an outward sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." >Another indication was to cut off a sliver of bacon to share with guests and >sit around to "chew the fat." > >Those with money had plates made of pewter. Unknowingly at the time, 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 reused for quite some >time. Trenchers were never washed, and worms and mould 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 roadside would >often take them for dead, and prepare them for burial. The "deceased" were >laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days, and families would gather >around, and eat, drink and wait to see if the party would wake up, thus began >the custom of holding a "wake." > >England is old and small, and the locals started running out of places to >bury people. They would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a >"bone-house" and reuse the grave. When re-opening coffins, 1 out of 25 >coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside. Realizing they had >been burying people alive came the thought of looping a string around the >wrist of the corpse, through a hole in the coffin, and up through the ground >attached to a bell. Someone had to sit 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, folks. >Who said History was boring!