Facts from 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, rats, and 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. 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 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 entry way--creating a "thresh
                       hold." 

                       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--inspiring 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 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 paysan bread which was so old and hard
that they could use them for quite
                       some time. Trenchers were never washed and 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- the custom of holding a "wake." 

                       England is old and small and they 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, one 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". 

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