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

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. Wh en 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! ! !