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Interesting History You All Should Know |
gelfen
Joined: Nov 22, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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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 still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body
odour. 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 dogs, 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 really 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 the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding 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."
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 the 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 and 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 them 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 thought 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 that History was boring!!
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In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship. It was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by-product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!
Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined
just what was happening. After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane. Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T," which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.
You probably did not know the true history of this word. Neither did I. I always thought it was a golf term.
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In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck?
The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon.
There was only one problem - how to prevent the bottom layer from
sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But if this plate was made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys."
Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.
Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a
brass monkey!" (And all this time, you thought that was an improper
expression, didn't you?)
_________________
Gee, does that beat me? I only got two pair - two aces, and another two.
[ This Message was edited by: gelfen on 2003-12-19 04:03 ] | |
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crowing
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: 475
From: La Sexocristo
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nice...
btw is your signature from bugs bunny? |
gelfen
Joined: Nov 22, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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well spotted 
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pachy
Joined: Nov 05, 2002
Posts: > 500
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@gelfen, I allways giggle when i read some of these tales, some are corrrect but lots of them are not, a little hard to believe is this one;
"England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people".  er... so where do you think they have been burying people in England for the last 503 years then ???
However thatched roofs are very popular here in my area now days, as lots of the old cottages are being rethatched as its very invirementaly friendly, turf roofs are becoming popular to, it suites the climate like tin roofs were best suited to climate in Ausralian early houses.
Dirt floors are still a feature of many French rural houses.i stayed in one recently, it becomes hard with age & is similar to concrete, only warmer.
Burying people alive will soon be outlawed though, unless someone has really upset you.
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gelfen
Joined: Nov 22, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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"England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people"
i think it would be more accurate to say that in general rural Britons are not prone to travelling too far afield, so they would not have necessarily kept expanding sorryds to find more room (i know when i was in the UK with my family a lot of people were amazed that we were willing to drive to 3 separate villages in a day, each of which were two hours apart - in Australia that's just a short trip if you're touring the country).
i also think that in the more populated towns, it would not be uncommon for the cemeteries to become surrounded by buildings, so rather than establish a new graveyard they would have r-used the old. i know that happens here today (each plot is only held for ~20 years and after that you keep paying)
_________________
Gee, does that beat me? I only got two pair - two aces, and another two.
[ This Message was edited by: gelfen on 2003-12-19 04:49 ] |
pachy
Joined: Nov 05, 2002
Posts: > 500
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@gelfen, what do you mean, "i think it would be more accurate to say that in general rural Britons are not prone to travelling too far afield,"
How did we get the old empire then ?
If you came to england & wanted to go to 3 villages in a day & each was 2 hours appart, you were not going to see much of the villages were you. i drove down to Italy once, & often do a 2000 mile drive up & arround Scotland, most of the roads here are traffic jams in the daytime, you have to travel at night. thats why people do as little driving as they can, also digital speed camera's everywhere & camera's that send you a bill for parking.
Maybe you stayed with old people.
People who live in big countries don't allways do loads more traveling, i drove accross america once & while in California, i met lots of Yanks who were asking me what New york was like (i didn't tell them it was shit).
My mate was brought up in the northern territories though, i have yet to see australia myself.
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gelfen
Joined: Nov 22, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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we managed. it depends what you want to see. if each village only has one main attraction then it's pretty easy.
let's say, leave Village 1 at around 8am. arrive Village 2 at 10am, leave around 1pm. arrive Village 3 at 4pm. it's not that hard.
i was only speaking from personal experience (hazily remembered from my childhood), and it was a very broad generalisation which may well be 20 years out of date (after all it was 1983 when i was there).
and i did mean RURAL - the "this farm belonged to my father, and his father, and his father, and his father..." types.
of course, the British Navy was always good for seeing the world (if you lived long enough  ). and i know exactly what you mean about the speed cameras - except ours are all hidden. 
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pachy
Joined: Nov 05, 2002
Posts: > 500
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@gelfen, you changed your itinerary, in tthe original post you said;
"a lot of people were amazed that we were willing to drive to 3 separate villages in a day,"
But now it appears you only drove to TWO villages, you were allready AT the first village, this is important because you have sneakily removed 30% of the travelling when you wrote this:
let's say, leave Village 1 at around 8am. arrive Village 2 at 10am, leave around 1pm. arrive Village 3 at 4pm. it's not that hard
NO its "not that hard" if you leave out an entire village
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gelfen
Joined: Nov 22, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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sorry, i described the situation inaccurately in my original post.
edit: i suppose i could have said "visit", although that's still inaccurate. "drive between" instead of "drive to" (?)
besides, nobody said how far away the first village was from the starting point
_________________
Gee, does that beat me? I only got two pair - two aces, and another two.
[ This Message was edited by: gelfen on 2003-12-19 06:06 ] |
pachy
Joined: Nov 05, 2002
Posts: > 500
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@gelfen, you either like driving or you dont, i really like driving, will use any excuse to go somewhere, i think its in my family, my brother takes his family to Austria to ski, but he DRIVES there, so they get 4 days of ski slopes, & 10 days of rally drivng
I saw some tyres on Ebay that were 500 miles away in Edinborough, Scotland, the other week & used it as an excuse to go pick them up, i ended up going to the Edinborough festival & then 1000 miles arrouind the Highlands over 2 weeks, when i got back i needed new tyres,
my RR runs 255x55x18 pirrellis, if you have some cheap ones in OZ i will drive there for them.
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gelfen
Joined: Nov 22, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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what are you driving? James Bond's Lotus Esprit?
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pachy
Joined: Nov 05, 2002
Posts: > 500
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http://www.ebaumsworld.com/insuranceclaims.html
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judge
Joined: May 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Romania
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gelfen, you've made my day! Regarding speed cameras: my ass is toast! Last Friday I wanted to make my girlfriend a suprise and pick her up from a town she was in (300 km away) and I was naturally quite anxious to see her. Hence I was doing 160 in a 90 kmh limit when I passed a police car with a speed camera. I don't think they'll even bother to fine me - they'll probably just suspend my license directly... Do you have speed cameras deployed on cars on the move or are they just static?
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Scally_cadet
Joined: Oct 02, 2003
Posts: 361
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Kewl post mate!
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gelfen
Joined: Nov 22, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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@pachy
@judge: we got everything, static, portable, nightvision, combined red light/speed cameras (meaning if you accelerate to beat the light change you get dinged for running the red AND for speeding).
and best of all - only a 3km tolerance regardless of speed when the car speedo is legally only required to be accurate within 10%. down here speeding fines are another form of government taxation (they even budget for the expected revenue!)
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Posted: 2003-12-19 04:39
