Ten Facts You Cannot Afford Not To Know
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it.
Just think about how things used to be.
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
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,
followed by all the sons then any other men and 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'.
Because houses were first built without a roof, 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.
Hence, a bed with big posts on each corner and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.
That's how canopy beds came into existence.
Later when houses had thatched roofs of thick straw, 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 slimy and slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.
Hence the saying 'It's raining cats and dogs'.
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 kept adding more thresh, until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside,
so a piece of wood was placed across the entranceway..
Hence the saying a 'thresh hold'.
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 go 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 people 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'.
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 all manor of alcoholic drinks.
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 then laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around,
eat, drink and wait to see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom of holding a 'wake'.
With England being old and small, the local folks started running out of places to bury people.
So they would dig up coffins and take the bones to a 'bone-house' and reuse the grave.
When reopening the coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside
and they realised they had been burying people alive.
So they decide 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 then have 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'.
