A Few Silly but Interesting Facts

[Busman747]

I cant validate the truthfulness of most of these - but they are daft enough to be true.

IN THE OLD DAYS

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."




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 odour.




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."








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 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."





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."










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 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, a "thresh hold."



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 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."



"Can O' Worms"


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 bread which was so old and hard that they could be used 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, mouldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."