[TheForge] Good ole days ?

[lama]

(I didn't write this so I don't know how accurate it is, but it sure
is interesting)

History

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:

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 rats, 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.  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 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."

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.  Most people did not have pewter
plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like
a bowl.  Often trenchers were made from stale pays and bread
which was so old and hard that they could use them for quite
some time.  Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold
got
into the wood and old bread.  After eating off wormy moldy trenchers, one
would get "trench mouth."

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 they 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?!)



Dave Mudge lama@lametalsmiths.org
http://MagicHammer.IronWorkers.com
http://MagicHammer.FreeServers.com
A duck's quack doesn't echo.
No one knows why.