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Archiver > CIENFUEGOS > 2001-02 > 0982947905


From: "Michael or Jenny Cienfuegos" <>
Subject: [CIENFUEGOS] Fw: [TINDALL] FACTS ABOUT THE 1500'S
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 10:05:05 -0700


Some interesting information on our ancestors ways of life.

Jenny
List Mom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susie" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 10:14 PM
Subject: [TINDALL] FACTS ABOUT THE 1500'S


> I got these in email today and thought you all would like them. Gee, I
> am glad I didn't live in this time period! LOL!!! I bet some of these
> are reasons they caught so many diseases and died! They are
> interesting. Hope you enjoy this! :o)
>
> Susie
> List Admin.
>
>
> ==============================================
> 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 still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting
> to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
> ==============================================
> 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
> 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."
> ==============================================
> 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 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 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 entry way--hence, a "thresh
> hold."
> ==============================================
> 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."
> ==============================================
> 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 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. 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
> paysan 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."
> ==============================================
> 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 whiskey. The combination would some
> times 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 out running out of places to
> bury the people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones
> to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one
> out of 2 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 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 ("midnight shift") to listen for the
> bell, thus someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a
> "dead ringer."
> ==================================
>
>
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>
>
>
> ==============================
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