Post by Erich on Feb 20, 2009 10:54:13 GMT -5
I recd the following via email and thought I'd share it here...
Subject: "Fun" History Facts
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.
London, England was 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! ! !
===========================
Some of these...if not all must of applied to the poor people which of course was the overwhelming majority. I don't think they had much of a "Middle Class" in Europe during this perioid. No wonder there was a big immigation to America in the next 3-4 centuries....
We take so much for granted these days and we don't seem to have any idea what real hardship is.
We had a couple of bad storms this winter in my geographic area and many were without electricity for several days. Think about living without hot water, refrig, elect lights, TV, stove, heat...etc and we got a small taste of how our ancestors lived. It was a wake-up call for me...
We are all in a worldwide economic recession and it wouldn't take that much to turn into a depression like in the 1930's. If not for WW2 who knows how long that period would have lasted. Now a World War is not an option so lets all hope and pray we aren't heading towards something similar to what our parents and grandparents experienced. It wouldn't take much....
Newsweek Magazine says America is going down the path towards Socialism... and there are many other smart people saying these "Bailouts" and "Resues" are a precursor to an oncoming Revolution of some sort... Many of us who have worked hard and played by the rules and paid our taxes are now watching those who haven't played fair... getting rescued with our tax dollars. Something is terribly wrong here and it's not going to take much of a spark to ignite the fire that is hovering in many of us.
Think about all the people who are in their early to mid 60's and were planning on retiring with the money they saved in their 401K's. Now their life savings have dropped about 45-55% in less than one year. It all comes down to GREED!!! The wall street insiders have made billions at the expense of all of us who trustred the system. The system is Broke and no one seems to know how to fix it...
Anyway... I'm sorry for the commentary but I just needed to vent my feelings and frustrations and they came out here... I didn't plan this... it just came out as I continued to type and think about things. I got to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Subject: "Fun" History Facts
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.
London, England was 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! ! !
===========================
Some of these...if not all must of applied to the poor people which of course was the overwhelming majority. I don't think they had much of a "Middle Class" in Europe during this perioid. No wonder there was a big immigation to America in the next 3-4 centuries....
We take so much for granted these days and we don't seem to have any idea what real hardship is.
We had a couple of bad storms this winter in my geographic area and many were without electricity for several days. Think about living without hot water, refrig, elect lights, TV, stove, heat...etc and we got a small taste of how our ancestors lived. It was a wake-up call for me...
We are all in a worldwide economic recession and it wouldn't take that much to turn into a depression like in the 1930's. If not for WW2 who knows how long that period would have lasted. Now a World War is not an option so lets all hope and pray we aren't heading towards something similar to what our parents and grandparents experienced. It wouldn't take much....
Newsweek Magazine says America is going down the path towards Socialism... and there are many other smart people saying these "Bailouts" and "Resues" are a precursor to an oncoming Revolution of some sort... Many of us who have worked hard and played by the rules and paid our taxes are now watching those who haven't played fair... getting rescued with our tax dollars. Something is terribly wrong here and it's not going to take much of a spark to ignite the fire that is hovering in many of us.
Think about all the people who are in their early to mid 60's and were planning on retiring with the money they saved in their 401K's. Now their life savings have dropped about 45-55% in less than one year. It all comes down to GREED!!! The wall street insiders have made billions at the expense of all of us who trustred the system. The system is Broke and no one seems to know how to fix it...
Anyway... I'm sorry for the commentary but I just needed to vent my feelings and frustrations and they came out here... I didn't plan this... it just came out as I continued to type and think about things. I got to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Sandi