|
If
you're young and hip, this is still
interesting……
Us
older people need to learn something new every
day...
Just to keep the grey matter tuned
up.
Where did "Piss Poor" come from?
Interesting history.
They used to use
urine to tan animal skins, so families used to
all pee in a pot.
And then once it was
full it was taken and 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 1500's
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 the 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 co ld, 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
sometime s 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; “holding a wake."
Englandis 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 history was
boring!!!
So get out there and educate
someone!
Share these facts with a
friend.
|
cheqnet.net)