Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were beginning to smell a little bit so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide their body odor.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house bathed first in nice clean water, then the sons and other males, then the women and finally the children -- last of all were 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 beneath. It was a great place for animals to keep warm so dogs, cats and other small critters (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the thatch. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall from the roof -- hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
Since there was little to stop things from also falling into the house this posed a real problem, especially in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up an otherwise clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top became a necessity -- ergo, the canopy bed.
Only the wealthy had flooring other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy usually had slate floors that got slippery in winter when wet, so they spread thresh on the floor to help their footing. As winter wore on they added more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping through the doorway. A piece of wood placed in the entryway solved the problem and gave life to the word "threshhold."
They cooked in the kitchen inside a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added goodies to the pot, mostly vegetables (the poor ate very little meat). If they had stew for dinner the leftovers stayed in the pot to get cold overnight, then the process began again the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there a very long time, giving rise to: "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
To obtain pork was something very special. When visitors came over they could hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They'd cut off a little to share with guests, then they'd all sit around and "chew the fat."
Folks with money used plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and even 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 whiskey. That combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would mistake 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 to eat and drink and wait and see if the body would "wake" up -- thus was born the custom of holding a wake."
Warmie
