LIFE
IN THE 1500s
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Most people got married in June because they
took their yearly bath in May and were still smelling pretty good by June. However,
they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the
b.o.
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Baths equaled 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."
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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 pets, dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, 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."
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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. So, they found if
they made beds with big posts and hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that
problem. Hence those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies.
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The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had
something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy
had slate floors which would get slippery in the winter when wet. So they
spread thresh on the floor to 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 at the entry way, hence a
"thresh hold."
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They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle
that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to
the pot. They mostly ate vegetables and didn't 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 in
there for a month. Hence the rhyme: "peas porridge hot, peas porridge
cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
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Sometimes they could obtain pork and would
feel really special when that happened. When company came over, they would
bring out some bacon and hang it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and
that a man "could really bring home the bacon." They would cut off a
little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the
fat."
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Those with money had plates made of pewter.
Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food.
This happened most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes for 400
years.
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Most people didn't have pewter plates, but
had trenchers - a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl.
Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms got into the wood. After
eating off wormy trenchers, they would get "trench mouth."
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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."
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Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey.
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."
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Roubidoux
True tales of the Huckleberry Finn type adventures of a boy who journeys from
delinquency in California to Southern culture in the Missouri Ozarks. Although told
through the eyes of a twelve year old who never grows old, much of the real life
adventure is emotionally timeless with appeal to all ages. Brutally honest at
times but never off colored.
A sample from Roubidoux may be read here.
The book may be ordered here.
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