Life in the 1500s

LIFE IN THE 1500'S

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: These are interesting... 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 adding 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."

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 "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."