Whoever said that history was boring?

[u8nxprt]

Whoever said that history was boring?

Next time you are washing your hands and
complain because the water temperature
(not the detergent that you are using) isn't
just how you like it, think about how things
used to be....Here are some facts about England
in 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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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 dogs, 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 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 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 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 in the
entranceway- hence, 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 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 a high acid content caused some of the lead to
leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and
death this happened most often with tomatoes, so for
the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered
poisonous.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Most people did not have pewter plates, but had
trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped
out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from
stale bread, which was so old and hard that they
could be used for quite some time. Trenchers were
never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got
into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy,
moldy trenchers, one 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 "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 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 thought
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...(and whoever said
that History was boring?)

[Cd.]

This is all from an old email that circulated. Really fascinating stuff if you ask me.

[Lowtide]

Interesting stuff to be sure! I remember my drama teacher telling us about some of this stuff.

Like, the "Ring around the rosey, pocket full of posies" is about the black plague, "Ring around the rosy" are the markings that appeared on the afflicted, "Pocket full of posies" was to drown out the smell of rotting corpses and "Ashes, ashes we all fall down" was about the burning of the corpses and more death.

I love history!! Thank you for sharing this with us!