View Full Version : INTERESTING FACTS IF TRUE


vineyardblues
06-26-2006, 01:39 PM
Maybe some of the older grumpy guys can tell us if this is true ? lol

VB



>> 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 the 1500s:
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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..
>> ________________________________
>>
>> And that's the truth...Now, whoever said History
>> was boring ! ! !
>>
>
>

Backbeach Jake
06-26-2006, 04:21 PM
Those all sound like reasonable explanations. Life then woulda bit for modern folk. Hell, we get bitchy about the brand of toilet paper. And these things:cputin: woulda gotten us burned at the stake.

Uncle Matt
06-26-2006, 07:37 PM
Obviously another quiet day at the office for Peter.

Raven
06-27-2006, 02:48 AM
i miss those days....

MakoMike
06-27-2006, 06:56 AM
Lots of misinformation scattered among a few true facts.

Raven
06-27-2006, 07:55 AM
Lots of misinformation scattered among a few true facts.

especially about thatched roofs....because our modern day high tech tar shingles have a life expectancy of 20+ years and there are thatched roofs still around today....and the homes under them are just as dry now as the day they were built. In fact thatched roofs are still being made.

when you look at water spouts: call them water tornado's for a better name...they are quite capable of picking up and transporting whole schools of fish and raining them on villages.....then and now.

RIJIMMY
06-27-2006, 08:28 AM
Unrelated, but when I was in Rome and toured the Coliseum, a guide told us that the arched entry ways were named fornics (fornixs?).
Women were not allowed in the Coliseum, so prostitutes would hang outside in the fornics, their clients would do their business right there and that’s were the word fornication came from. Thought that was cool.

Backbeach Jake
06-27-2006, 04:37 PM
Ever notice the thatched roof on the ChristmasTree Shop at the Sagamore Bridge? Massive. And sustained minimal damage during the last hurricane.