Here are some Extremely Interesting 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. 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."

     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 ! !