>Subject: Old Sayings
>
>Not sure if all this is true, but it makes a good story!
>
>
>Life in the 1500's:
>
>Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
>May and were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were
starting
>to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.
>
>Baths equaled 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
>"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 pets
.... >dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, 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. So, they found if they made beds with big
posts
>and hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence those
>beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies.
>
>
>The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt,
>hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors which would get
>slippery in the winter when wet. So they spread thresh 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 at the entry way, hence a "thresh hold."
>
>
>They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the
>fire.  Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They mostly
ate
>vegetables and didn't 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 in there for
a
>month. Hence the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas
>porridge in the pot nine days old."
>
>
>Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that
>happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and
>hang it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man "could
really
>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. This happened most
>often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes ... for 400 years.
>
>
>Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had trenchers -- a piece of
>wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Trencher were never washed
>and a lot of times worms got into the wood. After eating off wormy
trenchers, >they 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 the "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 they started running out of places to bury
>people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a
>house and reuse the grave. In reopening these coffins, one 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 their
>wrist and 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 to listen
>for the bell. Hence on the "graveyard shift" they would know that someone
>was "saved by the bell" or he was a "dead ringer."
>
>
>
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