Things to ponder.....

When you have no clue as to what you want to say

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Walkinghairball
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Things to ponder.....

Post by Walkinghairball »

LIFE IN THE 1500'S

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 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 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. 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 that History was boring ! ! ! :-D
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Post by awip2062 »

History boring?!?!? You never took history in MY school. LOL
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Re: Things to ponder.....

Post by Devil's Advocate »

Walkinghairball wrote:These are interesting.
But highly dubious....
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.
Nice story, but based on a myth of one bath per year. Some people would've washed on a daily or weekly basis, others less frequently. I once read that Henry VIII took only 3 baths in his lifetime: first his baptism, and later on the instructions of a girlfriend and his doctor.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
Still do. :razz:
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."
I think this'n's a fabrication.
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 off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
IN the roof, not on it. Thatched rooves are pretty dense, you might get a mouse within it, but not a cat and certainly not a dog.

And I'd dispute that they get slippery when it rains, 'cos modern (or preserved) thatched rooves invariably have chicken wire to prevent birds nesting in them.
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.
If "canopy beds" are another name for four-posters, then no, this can't be true. Four-poster beds have always been posh, and posh people have always had ceilings.
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 entranceway.
Hence the saying a "thresh hold."
Dirt floors: yes. Source of the expression "dirt poor"? Don't know, but it doesn't seem plausible to me.

"Threshold"? The etymology shown at dictionary.com doesn't seem to agree.
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
:evil:
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."
This seems a bit dubious to me. And not just because it's "pease."
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."
Ummmm, no. It was common practice to keep a live pig or two to eat waste food, and to provide bacon. "Chewing the fat," if it ever referred to any real food, could be any meat.
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.
Tomatoes are poisonous, being as they are members of the nightshade family.

However, they are not the most acid items on the 16th century diet: that would probably be wine/vinegar, followed by beer.
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."
This one might actually be true, except that I think it more likely the bread would be divided a whole loaf at a time, rather than by cutting them up.
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."
Whiskey wasn't invented for a hundred years yet.

Adding lead to beer doesn't make it knock you out for a few days.

And I always thought that a wake, in that sense, was of Irish origin and therefore of Gaelic etymology. I could be wrong on this point.
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."
Welllllll... England isn't all THAT small. City graveyards ran out of space in the 19th century due to overcrowding in the industrial revolution. Some smaller town churches do have older charnel houses.

However, the rest of this story really sets my BS alarm ringing. "Saved by the bell" is all about getting out of school at the end of the day. "Dead ringer" is about bearing a close similarity to someone else.



signed,

killjoy. :twisted: :razz:
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Post by Devil's Advocate »

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Post by Walkinghairball »

Tell you what D.A

Next time you want to bust my balls, I will spread my legs really wide.

Then you won't have to fukkin kick me so hard. :razz: :-D :razz: :-D :razz:

Teaches me to cut and paste some crap off the internet. :roll:
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Post by Soup4Rush »

it sounded good to me, but Soups is just poor white trash from the suburbs. Can I kick you in the balls too? :-D :razz:
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Post by Walkinghairball »

Batter uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!! :razz: :-D

Honest, I'm not mad at nothing. Hey D.A, if my post above sounds angry, it wasn't meant to be. I found it rather amusing.

Otherwise there would have been lots of :x and stupid stuff like that.
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Post by Xanadu »

Tomatoes poisonous??? D.A...what have YOU been smoking?
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Post by Walkinghairball »

He's right.........tomatoes are nasty.
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Post by Xanadu »

:shock: I love tomatoes...raw of course
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Post by Walkinghairball »

Slimy things they are.
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Post by Xanadu »

But they taste so good...
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Post by Walkinghairball »

The cherrie kind make great sling shot bullets!!! :twisted: :twisted:
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Post by Xanadu »

:shock: How dare you treat tomatoes like that!!! How would you like it if I took some nice sticky tight buds and did that with them!!!...and no I wouldn't be shooting them at you :razz:
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Post by Walkinghairball »

How can you refer to tomatoes and tight little beautiful buds like that in the same sentence!!! :razz: *Spanks Xanny* :twisted:
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