MomentsThere is an old Hotel/Pub in Marble Arch, London which
used to have gallows adjacent. Prisoners were taken to
thegallows (after a fair trial of course) to be hung. The
horsedrawn dray, carting the prisoner was accompanied
by anarmed guard, who would stop the dray outside the
pub and ask the prisoner if he would like ''One Last Drink.''
If he said ''Yes,'' it was referred to as "One For The Road.''
If he declined, that prisoner was "On The Wagon"
So, there you go. More bleeding history.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used
to all pee in a pot and then once a day 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 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 cleanbed. 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 forquite 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 hangup
their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man
could "Bring home the Bacon." They would cut off alittle to
share with guests and would all sit around talking 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
thefood, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened
most often with tomatoesp; 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 haveto 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 like I just did ! ! !
--Unknown Author
