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 entry way --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 paysan 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" or "wake keeping".

England is old and small, and, they started out 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,
one 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."

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