We're told that all this is true - see what you think....?
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 old days:
- 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 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 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 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 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 !!!
Well, we're told that it's the truth - do you agree?