This is what i got from my email.
Its really funny!!


> In The 1500's
> The next time you are washing your hands andcomplain because the water
> temperature isn't just how you like it, thinkabout how things used to be.
> Here are some facts about the 1500s:These are interesting...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 tohide the body odour. Hence
> the custom today of carrying a bouquet whengetting married.Baths consisted
> of a big tub filled with hotwater. 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 actuallylose someone in it. Hence
> , the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bathwater..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
> catsand other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the
> roof When it rained itbecame 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.. Thisposed a
> real problem in the bedroom where bugs and
> other droppings couldmess 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
> intoexistence.The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something
> other than dirt.Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors
> that would getslippery 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 threshuntil,
> when you opened the door, it would all
> start slipping outside. Apiece of wood was placed in the entrance
> way.Hence the saying a threshhold. (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 a 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 theirbacon 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 allsit 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 thefood, causing lead
> poisoning death. This happened most often with
> tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were
> consideredpoisonous.
> Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the
> loaf, the family got the middle, and guests gotthe top, or the upper crust.
> Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes
> knock the imbibers out for a couple ofdays. 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 wakeup. 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 coffinsand 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 thebell; 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