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CRilliterate

Technical User
Dec 7, 2005
467
US
These are interesting...
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. 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 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 clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That is 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 entranceway. Hence the saying 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 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 high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, 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 "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 thr! ough the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to 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 that History was boring ! ! !

Educate someone...Share these facts with a friend

 
I have heard the thing about multiple persons using the same bath water, with the man of the house going first, several times before. I believe it to be true.

I've also heard the graveyard bell story many times before, and I believe that to be true as well. As for the rest - I dunno - some sound right.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard. [dragon]
 
The peas porridge one sounds very wrong to someone who learnt it as "pease pudding", not that I'm saying the version I learnt was necessarily correct.

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert
 
Uh, in many parts of the world multiple people still DO share the same bath water - I mean in sequence that is. Uh...my wife and I did. Never even thought about throwing a baby in there.

I too remember it as "pease".

Unfortunately, in life...if it sounds too true...it probably isn't. Just because it sounds reasonable, does not - in fact - make anything true.

It still sounds reasonable to say the "sun sets". We still do. Hate to mention this...but it does not.

Gerry
 
I don't see point of bathing at all in bathing after anyone.
I think no one was throwing baby in the water...it was so dirty so figuratively speaking you could miss a child if it was in it but not intentionally throwing in...I don't think so.

 
CRilliterate said:
I don't see point of bathing at all in bathing after anyone.
In this day-and-age of reliable indoor plumbing, there's probably not much of a reason.

In times when the water had to be fetched by hand from a well or a creek, heated over a fire by hand, then added to a bath, I can see why someone might want to share water rather than participate in that pup-and-pony show a second time in one day.

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I don't see point of bathing at all in bathing after anyone.
To save water? There are places that actually have water shortages.
To save energy? There are places that actually charge money for power.

Hmmmmmmm.

Gerry
 
OK, I use to live in place like that but we haven't used the same water. Isn't bathing purpose to wash OFF daily (weekly, monthly) dirt? Not to get it ON but someone elses.
So bathing in someone's daily (weekly, monthly) dirt just doesn't make sense to me. Like curing hunger with starvation. I see it as doable but senseless.
It is better to wipe yourself with wet cloth I think.
But it is whole other issue.
 
your joke reminds me of this one:

a mathematician, physician and a psychologist discuss the result of "1 + 1"

psychologist almost immediately:
"the result is located on an endless beam of light"

physician after a moment of thinking:
"the result is between 1,9 and 2,1"

mathematician after almost endless thinking:
"there is a solution for that"

i hope i didn't spoil it with my english ...
 
Many things people used to do look ludicrous when look at from our present knowledge. Remember, people used to avoid bathing any part of themselves because they believed that they would become ill.

Doctors used to actually "bleed" ill people because they thought that getting rid of bad blood would help the person regain strength quicker or kick off illness quicker.

And actually, I remember as a child all of us children would use the same bath water. Whoever was cleanest went first and so on and so on til the dirtiest. Which was me.[medal]
 
Doctors 'bled' people for the reason. It lowers blood pressure. Blood is not 'bad' - 'crazy' maybe lol.
Same with leaches (whatever those suckers names are) - same with donating blood. For some people it is relieve and once done it they can't stop - this is how good they feeling after.
 
>I don't see point of bathing at all in bathing after anyone.

Taking at bath at all is silly, then, as all you are doing is wallowing in your own dirt. Shower is what you need ...
 
I assume running water out of questions here. Period (scary?)
 
who said that bathing is for cleaning purpose only?

you don't go to bed only for sleeping either :)

 
When people used to bathe in the same water consecutively, they also bathed VERY infrequently. So even if you took a bath in water that had already been bathed in you were likely to come out cleaner than when you went in. The soap does SOME good even when the water is dirty.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard. [dragon]
 
just want to remind you of public swimming locations with hundreds of people sharing the same water ... (including small children doing their business beyond the surface ...)

not to talk about bathing in the open sea next to some industry pouring their trash into the ocean ...

so where is your problem to share a bathing tub with your brother ? :))
 
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