posted 08-21-2001 12:22 PM         

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.
>
> 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 dogs, 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 really 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 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 in the
> entranceway-hence, a "thresh hold."
>
> 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 the 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 a high acid content
> caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and
> 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 "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 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 thought 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... (and whoever said that History was boring)?