Facebook a place to learn and socialize, Look what I found a bit of history and it is exiting to read the simple way humans have progressed.
An interesting history lesson for all of you.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to pee in a pot and then, once a day, it was taken and sold to the local tannery. If you had to do this to survive, you were 'piss poor'.Worse than this were the truly poor folks who couldn't even afford to buy a pot. They 'didn't have a pot to piss in' and were the lowest of the low.
In the 1500's, many people got married in June. They took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June, well as good as anyone who hasn't bathed in a month could smell. Brides began to carry bouquets of flowers to help mask their body odor on their big day. Hence the custom is today to walk down the aisle with a bouquet of flowers.
Baths consisted of a large tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of taking a bath in nice, clean, hot water. His bath was followed by the rest of the men in the house. After the men, the women were allowed to bathe, followed by the children. Last to be bathed were the babies of the household. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. And thus, the saying "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" was born.
Houses had thatched roofs piled high with thick straw and no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (such as mice) lived in the roof. When it rained, it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying "It's raining cats and dogs" came to be.
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house due to poor construction. This posed a real problem in bedrooms where bugs and other droppings could mess up a nice clean bed and ruin a good night's sleep. Beds began to be made with large posts on every corner. Large sheets were dropped across the posts and offered a small amount of protection. And that folks is the humble beginnings of the canopy bed.
The floor was nothing more than dirt. Only the truly wealthy had anything different. Hence the saying 'dirt poor'.
The wealthy had slate floors that were incredibly slippery when wet and especially in the Winter. They began to spread straw (thresh) on the floor to help keep their footing. As Winter wore on, they added more and more until when the door was opened, it all began to spill outside. Wood was soon placed in the entrance way to contain the thresh. Hence the term 'thresh hold'.
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
In the old, old days, people cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle over a fire. Every day the fire was lit, and items were added to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not have much meat. They would eat stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. And so began the rhyme "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold. Peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
Sometimes people were able to 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 the man could "bring home the bacon."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leak into the food which inevitably caused death by lead poisoning. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for some 400 odd years, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Lead cups were used to drink ale and whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for days. When the bodies were found, they were taken home and prepared for burial, then placed upon the kitchen table. The family would gather together and partake in food and drink while waiting to see if the person would wake up or if they were actually dead. Thus the tradition of holding a wake was created.
In england, the graveyards were crowded and ran out of space for new occupants. People began to dig up the graves, the the bones to a bone house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, many were found to have scratch marks on the inside indicating that the person had been buried alive. Upon this discovered changing were made in the burial process. A string was tied around the wrist of the corpse which lead up through the coffin and was connected to a small bell above the ground. Someone would have to sit in the graveyard all night to listen for the bell, hence the term graveyard shift. This allowed those who were buried alive to be "saved by the bell" and they were considered 'dead ringers'.
Now, tell me again how history is boring
