They used to use urine
to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day
it was taken & Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive
you were "Piss Poor"
But worse than that
were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they
"didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low
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:
Most people got married
in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled
pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ...... .
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
entrance-way. Hence: 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 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?
