History and old sayings

>> > After reading this, history will never be the same again for me!
>> > They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee
>> > in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery..... ..if
>> > you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor"
>> >
>> >
>> > But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford
>> > to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest
>> > of the low.
>> >
>> > 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 entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
>> >
>> >
>> > (Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
>> >
>> > 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.
>> >
>> >
>> > 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!
>> >