Fun History Facts

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:

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 fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's
raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling through
the roof and 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 to have scratch marks on
the inside and they realized they had been burying
people alive. So they started tying 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...