Fun History Lesson

[coyotehunter_1]

I found this some where and thought you all might get a kick out of it.  


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A Fun History Lesson

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor"
But worse than that were the really poor  folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...........they "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.
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 1500s:


Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell . . . 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 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 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 entrance-way. Hence: 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 the 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 thetruth...Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

EDIT * Sorry folks but after further research I have found the above article to be suspect (see my post below).
This just goes to show that some things you read on the internet may be a fabrication of someones imagination .

[KySongDog]

Very interesting.  Now I gotta ask.  Are those factoids in fact true or another example of internet facts emailed across the globe. ?   

[coyotehunter_1]

Semp,
Now you got me to wondering.

Well, even after several hours of research I was still undecided until I found this article on Class Brain:

“Whoever said that History was boring!” is a piece that was sent to us as an anonymous work. After receiving an email from Janice F. commenting on the falsity of the origins and urging us to encourage critical thinking, we dug deeper to find out more about each of the origins listed. We probably should have done that right off the bat. Thanks Janice! Some were terrible and some were not too far off. Here’s what we found:

http://www.classbrain.com/artteensb/publish/article_328.shtml

Just another one of those things posted on the internet that makes you go 

[KySongDog]

It is still all pretty interesting.   

I know one thing for sure. We got it better today than they did back in the 1500's.   

[pitw]

It is still all pretty interesting.   

I know one thing for sure. We got it better today than they did back in the 1500's.   

America wasn't so full then and illegal immigration wasn't the problem of the day.  Unless you were an Indian .

[FinsnFur]

Yeah, that was very interesting. I started to wonder right around the part with the strings in the coffin and being saved by the bell... 

[Bopeye]

They had several of those things on the History channel back over the summer. Don't know if they are all true, but I'm guessing several are.

[Bills Custom Calls]

Don't know if they are all true, but I'm guessing several are.

I really hate to do this Buuuut Bop I have to agree with ya 

[coyotehunter_1]

What makes me go is the fact that some unknown someone went to all the trouble to make up this (somewhat?) bogus article. Now it is being spread across the world as fact. It almost reminds me of some of the things that get made up, misrepresented and spread as truth on hunting boards.    

[CCP]

It is funny and sad   how things get turned from imagination to fact on the internet.  




There were a few patent's from the 1820's to the 1860 on the grave bell. I too remember some of this stuff from the history channel. One of the things that really stuck out on that program was the use of day old urine to rinse your mouth out to whiten your teeth. The practice appeared to be in use for the wealthy during the renaissance time.   This could have created the phase "Potty mouth"


Here are a couple of patent drawings for the safety coffin. I think it was more of a gimmick to sell a grieving family member that just didn't want to accept the fact there beloved were dead.

This device with the open pipe coming up from the coffin gave way to the Phrase "You need to close your Stench hole"

[coyotehunter_1]

Richard those drawings are quite interesting, to say the least,

but this statement will now be embedded in my mind for many years to come....

One of the things that really stuck out on that program was the use of day old urine to rinse your mouth out to whiten your teeth.

I agree with Semp: "I know one thing for sure. We got it better today than they did back in the 1500's".   

[Frogman]

Very interesting!

Jim