Posted on 02/10/2009 12:42:17 PM PST by Grumpybutt
** LIFE IN THE 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 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 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 entrance way. Hence the saying a threshold.
(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 platters 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 the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock a person 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 History was boring ! ! !
Wow, now I know... thanks
Have you ever seen the show “Connections”? It is a s interesting as what you have stated here. I remember much of this list is listed in the show.
Hmmmm...thought that was from boxing.
It could be true. Keep your ear to the ground.., thats how they knew if horses or buffalo or a train was coming in the old days.
I think the history channel could do a series on where sayings and words come from
And after 4 years of Hussein, we’ll look at those as the “good old, old days!!”
It appears not everyone is keen on clicking links.
Folks, this whole cute letter is full of it.
It started with the magic words “email I received”. That should be a red flag right there.
oh well. still funny tho
Most of this is fantasy, esp. the parts about bathing and cooking. People bathed frequently. Most towns had public bathhouses for that purpose. The avoidance of bathing because it was thought unhealthy is an early modern development—1600s and early 1700s; Louis the XIV’s era. Towns became filthier in the early modern period (late 1500s, 1600s onward). Absolute monarchy grew in that period, warfare became nearly nonstop. Witch persecutions are also early modern more than medieval. “Around 1500” is right between these two epochs.
Almost all the filthy, tyrannical stuff that most people associate with the “Middle Ages” is actually more characteristic of the early modern era than medieval period.
Well, anyone who’d believe all that is probably gullible enough to have voted for....
Look on the bright side. There’s an ample supply of village idiots in D.C. to choose from.
PBS did one years ago - Phil Donahue was the host. As I recall, it was excellent (even though I cant stand either Phil or PBS for most stuff).
Hey—those folks lived pretty well compared to what Obama has in store for middle- class white folks!
Well it should have been, but what can I say???... I thought it was funny anyway. Thanks for the heads up and link.
this part I know is untrue. The form of "dead" used in terms like dead ringer and dead reckoning is not the same as dead as in "not alive". Saved by the bell, I believe, is from boxing.
Some of the other things in this may be true, I don't know.
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