Trivia: Some facts from 1500's

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 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 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 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."


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."


Every child has happily joined hands with friends and recited the familiar
nursery rhyme, "Ring a(round) Ring a rosie, a pocket full of posies. Ashcha , ashesa, we all fall down."
Few people realize to what this seemingly happy little nursery rhyme actually refers.

This nursery rhyme began about 1347 and derives from the not-so-delightful
Black Plague from Europe, which killed over twenty-five million people in the
fourteenth century. The "ring around a rosie" refers to the round, red rash that
is the first symptom of the disease. The practice of carrying flowers and placing
them around the infected person for protection is described in the phrase,
"a pocket full of posies." " Ashcha Ashes-a" is a corruption or imitation of
the sneezing sounds made by the infected person. Finally, "we all fall down"
describes the many dead resulting from the disease.

And that's the truth... Now , whoever said that History was boring !