Actually, much of this IS true. Charles Funk (of Funk and Wagnalls fame)
spent much iof his life tracking down the origins of these phrases. Suggest
you see "Hog on Ice" or "Horsefeathers".
John Dendy
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 11:32 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: 16th Century Facts.....Fascinating & true
>
> "Urban Folklore" !!!!
>
> In a message dated 1/8/2001 11:36:50 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask]
> writes:
>
>
>
>
> Something I was given that I thought would be of interest to the
> group.
>
> Mike Polk
> Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C.
> Ogden, Utah
>
>
> 16th Century Facts.....Fascinating & true
>
> 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 still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting
> to
> smell,
> so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
> 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 dogs,
> cats and
> other small animals (mice rats, and 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. 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 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 in the entry
> way-hence,
> a
> "thresh
> hold,"
>
> 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 the
> 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 a high acid
> content
> caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead
> poisoning and
> death. This
> happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so,
> tomatoes
> were considered poisonous.
>
> Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece
> of wood
> with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made
> from
> stale paysan bread which was so old and hard that they could use
> them for
> quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times
> worms and
> mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy moldy
>
> trenchers, one 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 "upper
> crust,"
> Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would
> some
> times 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 out 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, 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 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."
>
> Linda Scott Hendrick, Ph.D.
> Associate Research Educationalist
> Principal Investigator
> RIMS Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program
> UC Riverside
>
>
>
>
>
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