Busted Living 1500s

Interesting stuff emailed by Rosie of Pennsylvania - A.L.T. Contributor. 
Thanks for educating me and sharing this with your fellow Thomasians, B*U*S*T*
buddies and MSN Group Members.

 Glad I live in this
century...most of the time!

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 get 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.  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 dogs, 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 really mess up your nice, clean bed. 
Hence, a bed with big posts and 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 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 start slipping
outside.  A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway.  Hence the
saying a "thresh hold."

Sometimes they could obtain pork,
which made them feel  quite special.  Whem visitors come 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 sit all 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 and 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 "upper
crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale
or whisky.  The combination would sometimes knock them out 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 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...Now,
whoever said that History was boring!!

Published 8/8/04  ALT  MSN Group
Web Page: Busted Living 1500s