76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
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Life in the 1500's:
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Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
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May and were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were
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starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.
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Baths equalled a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house
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had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men,
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then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then
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the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the
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saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
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Houses had thatched roofs. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood
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underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the
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pets...dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs lived in the
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roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would
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slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
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There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed
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a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really
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mess up your nice clean bed. So, they found if they made beds with big
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posts and hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence
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those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies.
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The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt,
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hence the saying "dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floors which would
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get slippery in the winter when wet. So they spread thresh on the floor
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to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on they kept adding more
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thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside.
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A piece of wood was placed at the entry way, hence a "thresh hold".
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They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the
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fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They
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mostly ate vegetables and didn't get much meat. They would eat the stew
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for dinner leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then
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start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been
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in there for a month. Hence the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas porridge
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cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
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Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that
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happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and
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hang it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man "could
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really bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share
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with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
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Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid
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content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food. This happened
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most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes...for
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400 years. Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had
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trenchers - a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl.
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Trencher were never washed and a lot of times worms got into the wood.
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After eating off wormy trenchers, they would get "trench mouth."
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Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of
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the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the
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"upper crust". Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The
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combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days.
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Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare
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them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple
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of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait
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and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake".
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England is old and small and they started running out of places to bury
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people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a
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house and re-use the grave. In reopening these coffins, one out
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of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they
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realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would
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tie a string on their wrist and lead it through the coffin and up
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through
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the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the
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graveyard all night to listen for the bell. Hence on the "graveyard
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shift"
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they would know that someone was "saved by the bell" or he was a "dead
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ringer".
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