Good old days

[woodchip]

The 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 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 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 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 (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 t 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."

[roid]

I AM ROID, HARBRINGER OF TRUTH (AND BUNNIES)

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm

it's false

[woodchip]

Nitdik

[Flabby Chick]

I thought a few of them sounded a bit iffy as i reaad them.

Without looking it up where do you reckon "living by your shoestrings" comes from?

[HaAGen DaZS]

back in the day, people were so miserable they just hung themselves.

[dissent]

As far as the age of marriage is concerned, I can agree that early teens was not the most common age. Of the genealogical research I've done in records of late 1500's and 1600's, it was pretty rare amongst the common folk in Europe (Switzerland and Alsace, specifically) to be married before age 25. I presume this was due to the need for the male breadwinner to have a viable occupation before he took on the responsibilities of starting a family. Otherwise he and the wife and kids might be a drag on their extended family and the rest of the community.

[roid]

I thought a few of them sounded a bit iffy as i reaad them.

Without looking it up where do you reckon "living by your shoestrings" comes from?

without looking it up, i'd say the expression came from times of famine when people would eat (or use to make a soup broth) things such as their leather shoestrings and leather briefcase handles.

[Suncho]

I thought a few of them sounded a bit iffy as i reaad them.

Without looking it up where do you reckon "living by your shoestrings" comes from?

My guess would be that people couldn't afford to replace their shoestrings, so if they broke they'd be screwed... perhaps analagous to today's "living from paycheck to paycheck"

[Flabby Chick]

In England when people were put in the poorhouse they had to pay to get out. Obviously they had no money so they removed their shoes, stuck them through the bars of the poorhouse hanging them by their laces and begged off the people passing by. Hence the expression.

[WarAdvocat]

Per the New York Public Library:

Question:
What is the origin of the term "shoestring" as it is used to refer to a small budget?

Answer:
According to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, "The expression may have come from faro [a card game], but it isn't recorded until 1904, although *shoestring gambler* for a 'petty, tinhorn gambler,' is recorded 10 years or so earlier. *On a shoestring* suggests that one's resources are limited to the laces of one's shoes."

[Flabby Chick]

Hey my Grandad told me so it must be true.

[Sarge]

You know, out of all the times I've read things like this, this is the first one that's been accurate and informative.

Thanx Woody!

[Battlebot]

a common characteristic of the bubonic plague was sneezing...

so during that era, if you sneezed, that meant you had the plague and you were going to die. So people that heard the sneeze would say "god bless you" (since youre about to die).

hence why we say bless you today

[Flabby Chick]

Do you reckon in a hundred years or so people will be arguing over the definition of woot!

[WarAdvocat]

Snopes vs God Bless You

But everyone knows what WOOT means! Err.. umm.. ahem.. What does it mean again? What was it's origin? WITHOUT GOOGLING!

IIRC,

We
Own the
Other
Team

[Ferno]

heh I figured woot was a takeoff from woop, a la pwn from own.

[Krom]

heh I figured woot was a takeoff from woop, a la pwn from own.

T is too far away from P for that case, pwn came from own because P is right next to O.

Postcount++

[Ferno]

dick.

[roid]

i'm under the impression that the "God Bless You" sneeze reaction was coz you could inhale evil spirits with your mouth open.