A little late, should have posted it right after Nardoni's post, but here you go:

> 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:

> 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
> 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 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 our 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 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 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 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 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."

Got it on the mail, don't know if it is entirely true, but it is funny anyway.