I CAN’T RECALL WHERE I FIRST heard this, but 500 years ago, when couples in Ye Olde England got married, they mostly got married in June – because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. As a precaution, however, brides carried flowers to hide any body odour. Hence, today’s wedding custom of “bridal bouquets.”
- When it came to that annual bath, the men of the house had the first soak in nice, clean, hot water, then women and children, and last of all the babies. By which stage, 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.”
- Earthen floors were the norm in most homes (only the wealthy could afford proper flooring) – hence the expression, “dirt poor.” But those floors got slippery when it rained, so people spread thresh (straw) inside to help keep their footing. As winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh – and a piece of timber was placed in the entranceway to hold it all in. Hence, a “thresh-hold.”
- Food back then was cooked in a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day, the family stoked the fire and added things to the pot – mostly vegetables (there was never much meat). Any leftovers would simply remain in the pot, to be reheated the next day. Hence the old rhyme: “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”
- In good times they could sometimes obtain pork – a real treat. And it was a successful man who could “bring home the bacon”. If visitors came over, they would share a little with their guests to show off – and sit around “chewing the fat.”
- Bread was divided within the household according to status. Servants got the burnt bottom of the loaf, family got the middle, and important guests got the top – or “upper crust.”
Who said history was boring?
