Dear Rockingham Group--I just rec'd this and thought it might be of general interest. Best, Michele >> Life in the 1500's-things you might not otherwise know if you didn't open >> your mail. >> After reading this, do you really want to go back to the "good ol' days? >> _________________ >> Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May >> and were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were starting to >> smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the odor. >> Baths equaled a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the >> privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other 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 pets - dogs, cats >> * and other small animals, mice, rats, 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. So, they found if they made beds with big posts and >> hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence those beautiful >> big four poster beds with canopies. >> The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence >> the saying "dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floors which would get >> slippery in the winter when wet. So they spread thresh 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 at the entry way, hence a "thresh >> hold." >> They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the fire. >> Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They mostly ate >> vegetables and didn't 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 in there for a >> month. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas >> porridge in the pot nine days old." >> Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that >> happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and hang >> it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and 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. This happened most often >> with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes - for 400 years. >> Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had trenchers - a piece of wood >> with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Trenchers were never washed and a >> lot of times worms got into the wood. After eating off wormy trenchers, >> they >> 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 the "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 they started running out of places to bury >> people. >> So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a house and >> reuse >> the grave. In reopening these coffins, one 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 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. Hence on the "graveyard shift" they would know that someone was >> "saved >> by the bell" or he was a "dead ringer".