Don't Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water
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."
It's raining Cats & Dogs
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."
Four Poster
Because of the Roof construction, 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". Hence, a bed with
big posts and a
sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's
how four poster/canopy beds came into existence.
Dirt Poor
If you were poor, The floor was just plain dirt, Hence the saying "dirt poor."
Threshold
The wealthy had slate floors instead of dirt. In the winter they would get slippery 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 entranceway --hence,
a "thresh hold."
Peas Porridge hot, Peas Porridge cold, Peas Porridge in the pot nine days old
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--hence the rhyme, "peas porridge
hot, peas porridge
cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
Chewing the Fat
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."
Pewter GOOD, Tomatoes BAD
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.
Trench Mouth
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 pays and bread which was so old and hard that
they could use
them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed
and a lot of times
worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After
eating off wormy,
moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
Upper Crust
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."
Wake
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--hence, the custom of holding a "wake."
Graveyard Shift
Back in old England, land started to become scarce, and it was all owned by either the wealthy or
royalty. Because of this, The poor started to run out of places to bury their relatives.
The solution was to dig up coffins and take the bones to a
"bone-house" and reuse the grave. When re-opening these coffins, about 1 out
of 25 were found to have scratch marks on the inside, so they
realized they had been burying people alive! (probably just comatose from lead poisioning) So they started
tying a string on the wrist of the corpse, which would run through a hole in the coffin and up
through the ground and then be tied to a bell. Usually a member of the family would
take turns sitting out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to
listen for the bell;
thus,
someone could be "saved by the bell" and would then be considered
a "dead ringer".