LM_NET: Library Media Networking
<color><param>0100,0100,0100</param>The following was sent to me by a friend and
although its authenticity
is unverified, the explanations are all that far fetched. Maybe you'll
also chuckle at the "logic" of some of them:
<FontFamily><param>Courier New</param><smaller>Life in the 1500s, something
interesting to ponder.
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 running
out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up
coffins and would take their bones to a house and
reuse the grave. In 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
their wrist and 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 to
listen for the bell. Hence on the "graveyard shift"
they would show that someone was "saved by the bell"
or he was a "dead ringer."
Most people got married in June because they took
their yearly bath in May and were still smelling
pretty good by June. However, they were starting to
smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide
the b.o.
Baths equaled 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 pets...dogs, cats and
other small animals, mice, rats, 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. So, they found if they made beds
with big posts and hung a sheet over the top, it
addressed that problem. Hence those beautiful big 4
poster beds with canopies. I wonder if this is where
we get the saying "Good night and don't let the bed
bugs bite..."
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something
other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The
wealthy had slate floors which 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 at the entry way, hence a "thresh
hold."
They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that
always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the
fire and added things to the pot. They mostly ate
vegetables and didn't 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 in
there for a month. Hence the rhyme: peas porridge
hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot
nine days cold."
Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel
really special when that happened. 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 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
into 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 never washed and alot
of times 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 "uppercrust."
**********************
Janet Hofstetter, librn
California (MO) High School
jhofstet@admin.california.k12.mo.us
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