LIFE IN THE 1500's.....very interesting!!!!!!!

[Guest guest]

LIFE IN THE 1500's

 

Interesting!20The 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:

These are interesting. ..

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly

bath 20in 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.

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 sons and men,

then the women and, finally, the children. Last of all the babies. By then the

20in 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 keep 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 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 the 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 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 co ld 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;

'Pease -porridge hot,

pease-porridge cold Pease-porridge in the pot nine days old Some like it h ot,

some like it cold Some like it 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,=20 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 whisky. The combination

would sometime's 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 hold ing a 'wake.'

England is old and small and the local folks started running out

of places to bury people. So t hey would dig up coffins and would take the bones

to a 'bone-house' and re-use the grave. When re-opening these coffins, 1 out of

about 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 that History was

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