Hi all,
I keep getting this email, and being the "resident
historian" among my family and friends, people keep
asking me if any of it is true. I know there are
always a ton of rumors about how sayings and customs
got started. If this is all a bunch of hooey, I would
like to be able to set the record straight too. So I
thought I would tap you all and see what you can tell
me about it....
(in your spare time...haha)
Thanks,
Kim
***************************
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
1. Most people got married in June because they took
their yearly bath
in
May and still smelled pretty good by June.
2. 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.
3. 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."
4. 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, 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."
5. There was nothing to stop things from falling into
the house. That
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.
6. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something
other than dirt.
Hence the saying "dirt poor."
7. The wealthy had slate floors that would get
slippery in the winter
when
wet, so they spread thresh (straw) 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 entranceway. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."
8. At times 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."
9. 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
and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so
for the next 400
years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
10. 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."
11. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. 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."
12. 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 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." And that's
the truth...
=====
Kimberly A. Kenney, Curator
McKinley Museum
800 McKinley Monument Dr. NW
Canton OH 44708 * 330-455-7043
"Let us ever remember that our interests are in concord, not conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war." --25th United States President William McKinley
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