[MR] RE: [falcon-cree] LIFE IN THE 1500'S

Tue Nov 2 18:18:50 PST 2004

for some reason this urban legend seems to come around once a year.  while
humorous to read things like this are pretty easy to verify.  

this one, like most email "facts" is false:

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm

regards

logan

www.ebonwoulfe.com

Some people are like Slinkies: not really good for anything, but you still
can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

  _____  

From: hawke5705 at aol.com [mailto:hawke5705 at aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 8:40 PM
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org; nottinghill-coill at yahoogroups.com;
falcon-cree at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [falcon-cree] LIFE IN THE 1500'S

LIFE IN THE  1500'S

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:

These  are interesting...

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. 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 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 the saying 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 "upper  crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. 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. T hey 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 that History was  boring ! ! !

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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