Date:         Fri, 3 May 2002 19:37:56 -0700
Reply-To:     developtrust <developtrust@COX.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         developtrust <developtrust@COX.NET>
Subject:      Interesting facts
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Rather than flog vendors consider this:

Interesting Facts from the 1500s.... (Part 2 of 2)

-- 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 bread which was so old and hard that they
could be used 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,
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 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.'