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LIFE IN THE 1500'S
The 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 1500s:
These are interesting...
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 odour. 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 the nice clean water, then all
the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children
with the babies last of all. By then the water was so dirty
that 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 and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
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 added more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of
wood was placed in the entranceway. 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 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 a while. 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 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 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 re-use the grave.
When re-opening 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 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... Now , whoever said that History was boring ! ! !
Educate someone...Share these facts with a friend
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