Most people were married in June because they took their yearly bath in May
and were still smelling pretty good by June. They were, however, starting to
smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
~~~~
Baths equalled 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 made of thick straw piled high with
little or no support underneath. It was a place for animals to stay warm, so
all the pets...dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats and insects
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 from the thatch roof into the house. This posed a real problem
in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice
clean bed. So, they found if they made beds with big posts and hung a
sheet over the top, it addressed that problem.
Hence the origin of
those beautiful big four post beds with canopies.
~~~~
Only the
wealthy had something other than a dirt floor.
Hence the
saying
"dirt poor".
~~~~
The wealthy had slate floors which
would become slippery in the winter when wet. So thresh was spread on the
floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on more thresh was
added. To stop the thresh from being kicked outside at the doorways, a piece
of wood was placed at the entry way.
Hence a "thresh hold".
~~~~
Meals were cooked in a large kettle that almost always hung over
the fire. Every day the fire was relit and things added to the pot. The meals
consisted chiefly of vegetables with little meat. The stew was eaten for the
evening meal leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and the
process would start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that
had been in there for a considerable time.
Hence the
rhyme:
"Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the
pot nine days old."
~~~~
Occasionally even the poor ate pork. When
company came over, they would bring out some bacon and hang it to show it
off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man "could really 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. This happened most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating
tomatoes... for 400 years. Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had
trenchers - a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl.
Trenchers were seldom washed and often worms got into the wood. After eating
off wormy trenchers, they 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 the "upper crust".
~~~~
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination
would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Occasionally these
people were taken for dead and were prepared 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 burial
plots were hard to come by. Coffins were often dug up and the bones taken to
a house in order to re-use the grave. In reopening these coffins, about one
out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they
realized they had been burying people alive. The custom then began of tieing
a string on the wrist of the supposedly deceased and leading it through the
coffin, up through the ground and tieing it to a bell. Someone would then sit
in the graveyard all night to listen for the bell.
Hence on the
"graveyard shift" they would know that someone was "saved by the bell" or he
was a "dead ringer".
~~~~
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