HISTORY LESSON?

[TRAM]

TweetSubject: History lesson



Next time you're washing your hands and 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.

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 awhile. 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. . . (who ever said that History was boring)?

[NATE]

Tweetgood god!!! i'm going to post this on another site...

[geesler]

Tweetdamn thats sure some history I never knew! reminds me how nasty us smart monkeys really are

[DJDIGGLER]

TweetI've seen that before. It's pretty cool. You left out the one where the reason people say "Bless you" when you sneeze is because that usually meant you were going to die of the black death / bubonic plague. Crazy huh.

[Equalizer]

Tweet interesting...

[JsJs24]

TweetI don't buy the bath part. Why could people have not jumped in a body of water such as a stream or pond. Where did you get this Tram. I have never heard anything like that before.

[Equalizer]

Tweeti did think about that as well.

[lxorl]

Tweetcool read !

[daved150]

Tweetpretty intresting stuff...thanx

[TRAM]

Tweet

I don't buy the bath part. Why could people have not jumped in a body of water such as a stream or pond. Where did you get this Tram. I have never heard anything like that before.

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT TRUTH IN ANY OF IT, BUT IT ALL SOUNDS GOOD, MAJORITY OF PLACES IN THE U.S. DO NOT RESIDE BY A BODY OF WATER THOUGH. IT WAS E-MAILED TO ME BY A BRO AND HE PROB GOT IT FROM THE SAME.