Where Did That Saying Get It's Start?


	Where Did It Start?


	The next time you wash your hands and complain
	because the water temperature isn't just how you
	would like it, think about how things used to be...
	Here are some facts from the 1500's...


	The reason most people got married in June, is
	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.


	Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
	The man of the house had the privilege of the nice
	clean water, next all the other sons and men, next
	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 beneath. 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 ani-
	mals 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 a bed. A bed with high posts and a sheet hung
	over the top afforded some protection; hence...........
	canopy beds came into existence.


	The floor was dirt, and only the wealthy had some-
	thing other than dirt; hence the saying........dirt poor.


	The wealthy had slate floors that would get slip-
	pery in the winter when wet, so they spread straw
	( called thresh ) 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 all start spilling outside. A piece of wood
	was placed in the entryway; hence..........a threshold.


	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 the stew had
	food in it that had been there for quite a while;
	hence the rhyme,..........."peas porridge hot, peas por-
	ridge 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 a high acid content caused some of the lead to
	leak 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 the..."upper crust."


	Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The
	combination would sometimes knock them 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 start-
	ed running out of places to bury people. So they
	would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a
	bone-house and re-use the grave. When re-opening
	these coffins, they found that as many as 1 out of
	25 coffins had scratch marks on the inside, so they
	realized they had been burying people alive. They
	thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the
	corpse, lead it through the coffin, 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 real truth...
	Whoever said that History was boring?