Received the following email today -
THIS IS A REAL EDUCATION
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> Where did "Piss Poor" come from?
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> Interesting History.
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> They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot
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> And then once it was full it was taken and sold to the tannery...
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> if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".
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> But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...
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> They "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.
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> The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature
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> Isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.
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> Here are some facts about the 1500s
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> Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May,
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> And they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell,
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> Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
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> Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
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> Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
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> The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water,
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> Then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children.
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> Last of all the babies.
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> By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
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> Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
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> Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
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> It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals
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> (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.
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> When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.
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> Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
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> There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.
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> This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings
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> Could mess up your nice clean bed.
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> Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.
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> That's how canopy beds came into existence.
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> The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
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> Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery
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> In the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing.
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> As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door,
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> It would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.
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> Hence: a thresh hold.
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> (Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
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> In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.
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> Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables
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> And did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers
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> In the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.
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> Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.
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> Hence the rhyme:
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> “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.
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> Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
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> When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
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> It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon."
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> They would cut off a little to share with guests
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> And would all sit around and chew the fat.
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> Those with money had plates made of pewter.
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> Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death.
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> This happened most often with tomatoes,
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> so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
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> Bread was divided according to status.
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> Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle,
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> and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
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> Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky.
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> The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
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> Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.
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> They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around
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> and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
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> Hence the custom; “of holding a wake”.
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> England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people.
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> So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be,
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> “saved by the bell” or was "considered a dead ringer”.
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> And that's the truth.
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> Now, whoever said History was boring!!!
