[or-roots] some facts about the 1500s:

[Nancy Lee Adams]

Sally,

Thank you for sending 'some facts about the 1500s'. I enjoyed reading it so 
much I read it to my daughter while I was in Virginia for 2 weeks. I'm back 
home now in Oregon and thought I had deleted it by accident but I found it 
on my home computer : ) .. I'm going to print it out & save it.. Thanks 
again, Nancy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sally" <sallyya at frontiernet.net>
To: <or-roots at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 1:07 PM
Subject: [or-roots] some facts about the 1500s:


>
> I got this on another list and enjoyed it so much I thought I would share 
> it with all of you.
> 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.
> (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 whiskey. 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 to run 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!!!
> So...get out there and educate someone! ~~~ Share these facts with a 
> friend.