Liverpool FC Forum

[Kenny Kan]

This is long but you may find it interesting...
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They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families
used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken &
Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive
you were "***** 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
***** in" & 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 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 (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 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 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 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 History was boring.

[ethanr]

Is that stuff seriously true? I knew about the bells in the graves, tho not how the term graveyard shift was coined... Some interesting stuff there tho. Thanks for sharing, I feel I've gained some truly important knowledge.

[woof woof !]

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!"

Similar scenes were still being enacted in the UK during my lifetime   

I still remember as a kid in the early 50's once a week a big tin bath was put in front of the fire in the "living room", filled with hot water that was boiled up on the stove, my old man would take his bath and us kids were herded into it once he'd finished. 

[Kenny Kan]

Is that stuff seriously true? I knew about the bells in the graves, tho not how the term graveyard shift was coined... Some interesting stuff there tho. Thanks for sharing, I feel I've gained some truly important knowledge.

I don't honestly know. It seems very likely.

Yet, going by Woof's post (this bloke seems to have been round for an eternity! serious) it could well be true.

I found it interesting too.

[Reg]

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!"

Similar scenes were still being enacted in the UK during my lifetime   :D

I still remember as a kid in the early 50's once a week a big tin bath was put in front of the fire in the "living room", filled with hot water that was boiled up on the stove, my old man would take his bath and us kids were herded into it once he'd finished. 

That was common Woof, my father was brought up off Aigburth Rd and all those roads of terrace houses had toilets in the yard and metal baths in the living room. I remember going to visit my nan in the late 60's but they had a proper bathroom by then thankfully. 

[laza]

Very interesting I guess these days if you worried about being buried alive they just bury you with your mobile phone and hope you can get a signal

[babu]

Very interesting I guess these days if you worried about being buried alive they just bury you with your mobile phone and hope you can get a signal

And a charger

[Benny The Noon]

Most of them were dismissed on QI as *****

[kazza]

Most of them were dismissed on QI as *****

Benny is proof that for every silver lining there is a dark gloomy cloud 

[Kenny Kan]

Most of them were dismissed on QI as *****

Benny is proof that for every silver lining there is a dark gloomy cloud 

The grim reaper of discussion.