
Life in the 1500's:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May and were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were 
starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.

Baths equalled 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
pets...dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, 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 really
mess up your nice clean bed.  So, they found if they made beds with big 
posts and hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence 
those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies.

The floor was dirt.  Only the wealthy had something other than dirt,
hence the saying "dirt poor".  The wealthy had slate floors which would 
get slippery in the winter 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 at the entry way, hence a "thresh hold".

They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the
fire.   Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They 
mostly ate vegetables and didn't 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 
in there for a month. Hence the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas porridge 
cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that
happened. When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and
hang it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man "could 
really 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 a high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food. This happened 
most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes...for 
400 years. Most people didn't have pewter plates, but had 
trenchers - a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. 
Trencher were never washed and a lot of times worms got into the wood.  
After eating off wormy trenchers, they would get "trench mouth."

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 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".
England is old and small and they started running out of places to bury
people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a
house and re-use the grave.  In reopening these coffins, one out 
of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they 
realized they had been burying people alive.  So they thought they would 
tie a string on their wrist and 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 to listen for the bell.  Hence on the "graveyard
shift" 
they would know that someone was "saved by the bell" or he was a "dead
ringer".


