Historical Facts

Since is it Monday, and it has been a rough Monday for many people I talked to, I figured that it was a good day to present some fun historical facts. Something light hearted, something to make you all smile. Monday's are tough, there is no need to frown about it, let's have some fun...

Do you remember reading about houses with thatched roofs? Thatched roofs had thick straw piled high with no wood underneath. It was the only place that animals could get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs, you get the drift...) lived in the roof. When it rained, the thatched roof became slippery and sometimes the animals that were camped in the roof 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 (but, if you read last weeks post on fun facts, if you don't bathe often, how clean can your bed really be...really???). Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

Also in those thatched roof houses, the floor was dirt, not concrete or carpet... Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying, "Dirt Poor." The wealthy had slate and slate floors would get slippery in the winter when wet, so the people spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when the door opened, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence, a thresh hold.... (are we having fun learning yet???)

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 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. That is where the rhyme: "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old" came from. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.

Because pork was so special, when visitors came over, the homeowners would hang up their bacon to show it 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 they would all sit around and "chew the fat." (ewwweeee) Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach into the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous (an my mother wouldn't believe ME!!! I knew tomatoes weren't good...)

Hopefully these fun historical facts made you smile. I know these facts really made me appreciate the times we are living in now. It gives you a better perspective on life. Hopefully you will have a good rest of the week.

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Until tomorrow...