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JUST A LITTLE SOMETHING TO CATCH YOUR
IMAGINATION |
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Life in the 1500's |
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| 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: |
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These are interesting... |
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| 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. |
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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."
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| 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 off the roof.
Hence the saying "It's raining cats and
dogs." |
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| 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. |
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| 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 there!
until when you opened the door it would
all start slipping outside. A piece of
wood was placed in the entrance way.
Hence the saying a "thresh hold." |
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(Getting quite an education, aren't
you?) |
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| 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." |
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| 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." |
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| 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. |
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| 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 "upper crust." |
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| 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." |
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| 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. |
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And that's the truth... Now, whoever
said that History was boring! !
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Educate someone...Share these facts with
a friend |
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