Date:         Fri, 17 Aug 2001 07:47:58 -0700
Reply-To:     Hector Zapata <hector.zapata@XRXGSN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Hector Zapata <hector.zapata@XRXGSN.COM>
Subject:      interesting TRUE facts
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 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, 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,
 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 rats, and 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 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
 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 slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entry way
 --hence, a "thresh hold."

 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, thathad 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 a 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. Most
 people did not have pewter plates, but, had trenchers, a piece of
 wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often, trenchers were
 made from stale paysan bread, which was so old and hard that they
 could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed,
 and, a lot of times, worms and mold got into the wood and old bread.
 After eating off wormy moldy trenchers, one would get "trench
 mouth."
 Bread was divided, according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom
 of the loaf, the family got the middle, head of the house, his
 eldest son and guests got the top, or, "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, they started out 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, one 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."