Interesting Facts

[Callaway]

I got this in an email today and I thought it was interesting, so I thought I would share it:

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 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
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. (Also, the tenderloin is the top part of the hog,
thus eating high off the hog.)
 
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.  (The
tomato is in the nightshade family of poisonous plants, but not the
fruit.)
 
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 ! ! !
 
Educate someone. Share these facts with a friend

Anyone else have any interesting facts to share?

[TheoK]

That's actually about what Sweden was like until the (late) 19th Century, especially in rural areas.

On the other hands, guns and opium were free back then. 

[TheoK]

* Only the rich could afford daily eggs 100 years ago. Poor people only ate eggs for Easter or when they were sick, even if they had hens themselves.

* Most people weren't killed by the enemy in the wars until about the first half of the 19th Century but died of sicknesses and starvation.

* An English worker 150 years ago had to spend 30% of his salary on tea, if he wanted to drink it a couple of times every day.

* Coffee was banned or restricted several times in Sweden until 1822.

* The French author Georg Sand was the first known woman in Europe who smoked cigars. As late as in the 1940s smoking women were considered very cheap in Europe, at least outside the cities.

[Natalia Evans]

Spokane was originally called Spokan Falls. They added the 'e' in 1883 and dropped the "Falls" in 1891.

Spokane means "Children of the sun" in Salish.

['andersom']

45 years ago a bread here was as expensive as an egg.

The price of an egg has hardly changed. But now a cheap bread is as expensive as 15 eggs.

[TheoK]

1 krona for an egg you buy from a farmer here. 3 kronor for an "ecological" egg bought in the store.

[Natalia Evans]

Back in the olden days children with birth defects or disabilties were abandoned so they died by starvation or another animal got them and ate them.

Back in the early 1900's or mids, lot of people placed their kids with disabilties in a institution.

Back when my dad was a kid (1950's) the gas was 25 cents a gallon.

Pampers hit shelves in 1961

The first disposable diaper was invented in 1948

['andersom']

Back in the olden days children with birth defects or disabilties were abandoned so they died by starvation or another animal got them and ate them.
Back in the early 1900's or mids, lot of people placed their kids with disabilties in a institution.

Back when my dad was a kid (1950's) the gas was 25 cents a gallon.

Pampers hit shelves in 1961

The first disposable diaper was invented in 1948

It is said that those, who lived through this ordeal, are the folklore little people that did tedious chores in the night for you, if you left some food for them.

[Natalia Evans]

I've heard in videos that's what people used to do to kids with disabilities. They were left abandoned. Especially when they have a baby and it have a birth defect, they would just leave it.

['andersom']

In the Roman Empire those kids were indeed thrown away like dirt.

But I heard, don't know where anymore, that in the mideaval times there were groups of 'different' people living in the woods, apart from society. And some of them took care of abandoned kids. Together having a community. And indeed, doing nightly chores in exchange for food in the 'normal' world. Since part of the abandoned people were dwarves, stories about the little folk did get more substance.

I'll try if I can find links or references to this. Found it an amazing story.

[Pyraxis]

Holy crap, I want those links if you find them.

[El]

Thorazine, the "first antipsychotic," which began to be used to treat psychotic patients in the 1950s, was originally advertised as a "chemical lobotamy."

ADHD's terminological history is as follows (working backwards):  ADHD, ADD, hyperkinetic reaction of childhood, minimal brain dysfunction.
.

[TheoK]

You missed the special term "DAMP" that is almost exclusively used in Scandinavia.

[Trigger 11]

There is one red seat in the outfield bleachers in Fenway Park. Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21 is where Ted Williams hit the longest homerun in Fenway Park history. It is also my license plate number!

[Parts]

My town was bought from the Indians through a treaty in 1639 and has been excepted from all there recent land grabs in the surrounding communities