[MR] Nonsense!!

[Richard Mowbray]

Whoever wrote this needs two things:
1) A Life!
-and-
2) A roadmap to help them find the truth!
Remember-
Life in the middle ages was too hard to survive and the human race
simply died out.

--- "Kenneth G. Samson - Delmarva Arts" <samsonkg at dmv.com> wrote:
> This was sent to me today - I don't believe ANY of it. Any
> documentation on
> this nonsense?
> 
> Ken Samson
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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, 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 (straw) 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 entranceway--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
> 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 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."
> 
> And that's the truth...and whoever said that History was boring?!
> 
>
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=====
I Live to Serve
Sir Richard

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