Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys
Interesting tidbits from history. Contributed by Dick Smith
Maybe you have heard of these.
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....This is very interesting and worth the trouble of taking the time
to read.
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, 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 (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 take a little to share with guests
and they 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 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, 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 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."
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 grou! nd 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...and whoever said that History was boring?!
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