Re: OT: News from the web

Fascinating "news" from 500 years ago, but you left out my favorite
part, about how this relates to Las Vegas.

--- Walt

In article <22434-42EEE58C-1101@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Ronald
Emerson <northturn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Here is some more news from the web. Here are some facts about 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 fall through 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 *** 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 ! ! !
>
> Ronald Emerson
>
.

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