Just got this in an email and thought it was really interesting. Passing it on with no verification of the info … but, very interesting none-the-less.

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:


Most
people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and
they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to
smell . .. . 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 an d 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 added more thresh until, when you opened
the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in
the entrance-way. Hence: 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 the 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. 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 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 History was boring ! !
!