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Living in the 1500s
The following note is great. And puts a humorous spin on how good
life is. (Its from David McElderry of Wells Kennedy Partnership
(organbuilders).)
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 fascinating facts about life 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 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 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 the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey.
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!
Would I lie to you?
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