[Mb-civic] history

[IHHS at aol.com]

Here’s a little history that you may have missed in  school!!! 



LIFE IN THE 1500'S

Interesting!

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 1500's:

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  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 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 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 and  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  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 slate floors that would get slippery in 
the winter  when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on 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 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 reuse the grave. When reopening these  coffins, 1 out of 25 
coffins were found t 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 ! ! !





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20051006/02b98f2b/attachment-0001.htm