Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.

Baths equaled 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 loose 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 pets... dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, 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. So, they found if they made beds with big posts and hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt,hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors which would get slippery in the winter when wet. So they spread thresh 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 at the entry way, hence a "thresh hold."

They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They mostly ate vegetables and didn't 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 in there for a month. Hence the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and hang it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man "could really 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. This happened most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes ... for 400 years.

Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had trenchers - a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Trencher were never washed and a lot of times worms got into the wood. After eating off wormy trenchers, they 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 the "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 they started running out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a house and reuse the grave. In reopening these coffins, one 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 their wrist and 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 to listen for the bell. Hence on the "graveyard shift" they would know that someone was "saved by the bell" or he was a "dead ringer."

>>Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.

False, I think, on the grounds that it was the Middle Ages (not the 1500s) that held personal hygiene in such low regard. The practice is real enough, however. I do know that Ancient Egyptians held personal hygiene in extremely high regards, but I don't know where the cycle flipped in history. We currently are in the "personal hygiene = good" phase poised for a flip to "personal hygiene = bad" phase.

>>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 pets... dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, 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"

Dunno about this one, though it sounds true. I just can't picture the renaissance filled with dugouts or other home types wherein a dog could conceivably get on the roof.

>>They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They mostly ate vegetables and didn't 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 in there for a month. Hence the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

True.

>>Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food. This happened most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes ... for 400 years.

Actually, I don't know the processes that cause this, but it's true enough. Lots of explorers during the 18-19th centuries died due to lead poisoning because the rations were kept in lead containers.

J'Lo, no that other one

>>Trench mouth is a disease from WWI and refers to the trenches that the soldiers fought in.

Actually I think you missed this one. They didn't have trench MOUTH, they had trench FOOT in WWI. Which was caused by days on end (if not weeks) wearing the same dirty, soiled socks on their feet, crammed into soiled sweaty boots that have all manner of filthy substances mixed in. A vertiable smorgasbord for bacteria to thrive and infect the skin of their feet.

Hence why to this day the armed services usually still put a high importance on keeping one's underclothes changed frequently (I mean, in some situations we're talking multiple times a DAY) and most especially the socks as the feet tend to be the body part that gets least amount of "breathing" (exposure to air) to evaporate sweat. That being thanks to the heavy reliance on thick leather boots that don't allow for a lot of air transfer.

Sweat is actually a pretty nasty and toxic substance. I can say this from personal experience, having suffered the "joy" of a rather nasty case of prickly heat while in the Gulf a few years back. <mutter> Had to learn to stay away from the vents (even if that 90 degree air did feel like an arctic wind compared to the rest of the engine room) and just suffer the heat, let fresh sweat wash away the old before it irritated my skin, and just shower/change as frequently as I could (sometimes as often as 4 times a day).

~~~Krin
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"
"Goblins ... aisle 6, Mycthengelde ... hunt smart, hunt S-Mart!"
"You whine like a mule ... you are still alive!"
"Call me Snake."

>>Teh rebuttal to pretty much every point in the original post about Ye Olde Glory Days.
http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa042202b.htm<<

That was a fascinating site! Thanks for posting it.

Lathaliu's Player

<<I also thought that tomatos were not eaten because they belong to the nightshade family of plants. Maybe that's just my sleepy mind telling me things again though.>>

Yup, they do. Nice to see you on the boards!

-Chakram

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Not my fault... honest.