Now you know! ( Archived) (7)

How it came about.

Life in the 1500's You're gonna love this.
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 1500's Most people got married in June beause they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty goodby June. However, they were starting to smell, so the brides carried a bouquet of flowersto hide the body odor, Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub of hot water. The man of the house had the priviledge 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 that you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Houses had thatched rooves, thick straw piled high with no wood underneath. It was the oly place for animals to get warm, so aall the dogs and cats and other small animals(mice and 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 either. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where the bugs and other droppings could mess up uornice clean bed. Hence a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection and that's how the canopy came into existance.

Enjoying your education?

Sometimes pork was obtained, which made the family feel quite special. When visitors would come over, they would hang up there bacon to show that the man of the house could"bring home the bacon". They would cut off little pieces to share and everyone would sit around "chewing the fat"

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got themiddle and the guests the top or "the upper crust".

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for several 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 eat and drink while waiting to see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folk started running out of places to bury people, so they would dig up the coffins and take the bones to a bone-house and reuse the grave. When reopening these about one in twnty five had scratch marks on the inside. They realised they were burying people alive, so they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin, up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Then someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell. Therefore someone could be "saved by the bell" or was a "dead ringer". Whoever said history was boring?

if history is as fun as this, i couldn't have failed history and retook 3 times...

you would make a good history teacher and students would love you...

A cool post , very informative ! I enjoyed reading it , thank you HG.

That was really interesting and makes sense.