History must truly be boring. Picked this piece from somewhere. Thought you would like it.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so
families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken and sold
to the tannery. If you had to do this to
survive you were "Piss Poor."
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a
pot. They "didn't have a pot to piss
in" and were the lowest of the low. 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 they still smelled pretty good by June. However,
since they were starting to smell, 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 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 the 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 History
was boring.
