We Complain About The Heat....

[Lynne]

.......Just imagine living in the 1500's. Recieved an email today that I've seen before yet still wanted to share since I still enjoy reading it.

P.S. I still think "don't let the bedbugs bite" comes from well, bedbugs.

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 the1500s:

These are interesting...

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. 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 ! ! !
Educate someone. Share these facts with a friend

[wy_white_wolf]

Too bad most of this isn't actually true.

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm

[Lynne]

Thanks, I checked out your link. This is one kind of email I don't check snoopes on.

I mailed the page to my aunt, now she will know also.

[Farmer Willy]

In the spirit of the email I'll make up, er, add a few more:

In the 1500's Payless and Shoe Carnival did not sell everywhere yet, so many peasants had to make their own shoes. Since leather was hard to get the men didn't
want the valuble pair of shoes they owned to get ruined from manure when they stood around talking, so to keep their shoes clean they killed the village bull, thus eliminating the largest manure pats, hence the expression "shooting the bull" when just standing around talking.

Nobody owned tooth brushes in the 1500th century, so to clean their teeth they would chew on the hard coal found in Briton. Since nobody had any chimneys in their house nobody bothered to bring the dirty dusty coal into town, rather they kept the supply just outside of town near the gated entry. Thus when someone had just finished a particularly sticky treat or a bagel with sesame seeds and needed to clean their teeth they would head for the "Coal Gate", the name that sticks to this day.

Since coffee was one of the luxuries for the rich in the 1500's it was mostly drunk from the earlier mentioned lead coffee mugs. Just as with the acid in tomatoes, the acid in the coffee leached out the lead. The Starbucks back then posted warnings to its wealthy patrons not to drink the last bit in their mugs, as the concentration of lead would be the greatest at the bottom. Thus the phrase "good to the last drop" was born.

There were many highwaymen roaming the countryside in the 1500's, looking to rob the wealthy of their coins. When a wealthy family had a big bar-b-que they wanted to make sure their guests made it home without being molested on their lands, thus they would send riders along to protect them till they reached their own lands. This group, known as the "Peace Force" was eventually corrupted to "Police Force". This is also where we got the traditional farewell as guests where preparing to depart---"May the force be with you"

The things you can learn on the 'net. Those that fail to learn from history will be doomed to make it up as they go.

[Lynne]

:banana02:

[ellebeaux]

Originally Posted by Farmer Willy

In the spirit of the email I'll make up, er, add a few more:

In the 1500's Payless and Shoe Carnival did not sell everywhere yet, so many peasants had to make their own shoes. Since leather was hard to get the men didn't
want the valuble pair of shoes they owned to get ruined from manure when they stood around talking, so to keep their shoes clean they killed the village bull, thus eliminating the largest manure pats, hence the expression "shooting the bull" when just standing around talking.

Nobody owned tooth brushes in the 1500th century, so to clean their teeth they would chew on the hard coal found in Briton. Since nobody had any chimneys in their house nobody bothered to bring the dirty dusty coal into town, rather they kept the supply just outside of town near the gated entry. Thus when someone had just finished a particularly sticky treat or a bagel with sesame seeds and needed to clean their teeth they would head for the "Coal Gate", the name that sticks to this day.

Since coffee was one of the luxuries for the rich in the 1500's it was mostly drunk from the earlier mentioned lead coffee mugs. Just as with the acid in tomatoes, the acid in the coffee leached out the lead. The Starbucks back then posted warnings to its wealthy patrons not to drink the last bit in their mugs, as the concentration of lead would be the greatest at the bottom. Thus the phrase "good to the last drop" was born.

There were many highwaymen roaming the countryside in the 1500's, looking to rob the wealthy of their coins. When a wealthy family had a big bar-b-que they wanted to make sure their guests made it home without being molested on their lands, thus they would send riders along to protect them till they reached their own lands. This group, known as the "Peace Force" was eventually corrupted to "Police Force". This is also where we got the traditional farewell as guests where preparing to depart---"May the force be with you"

The things you can learn on the 'net. Those that fail to learn from history will be doomed to make it up as they go.

oooh, you're good! Remind me never to buy anything from you without checking it out for myself first

[WildernesFamily]

LOL too funny. I had to think a bit before getting the Coal Gate one, LOL!