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[SSBubbles]

They used to use urine to tan animal skins,
so families used to all pee
in a pot & then once a day it was taken
& sold to the tannery.......if
you had to do this to survive you were "Piss
Poor"

But worse than that were the really
poor folk who couldn't even afford
to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest
of the low


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 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 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 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 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
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

[Get Real!]

All I can say is that we're EXTREMELY lucky to be living in modern times...

[Schnauzer]

In Ireland, 'Tinkers' were considered to be the lowest level of humanity in days of yore.

Until some 'Wag' coined the phrase (and invented an even lower level) "A Tinker's Journeyman" which implied that the unfortunate person was subservient to the 'Tinker', just one step up from a 'Politician'.

[Ron Doran]

SSBubbles - Thanks for that, however much may be true, but, like television, the forum should be to educate or entertain and that you have done. Bravo.