[Qcwa] interesting facts

[Trude-Coffin, Sharon]

very interesting,
thanks for the great weekend it was great being with you and having the time to chat...
travel safe stay in touch, you'll love ACK

-----Original Message-----
From: qcwa-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:qcwa-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of N0UF
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 10:53 AM
To: QCWA Reflector
Subject: [Qcwa] interesting facts


These are suppose to be facts from the 1500s.
Are they true? I don't know, they sound reasonable.

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 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 the saying 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 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 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 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."

Whoever said that History was boring !


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