LIFE IN THE 1500'S in Good Old England:

An interesting forward that I would like to share and remember-
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 1500's: These are
interesting. 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 odour.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 canopied 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 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 the saying 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 toshare 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 deaths.
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 (dead drunk) 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 realised
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...