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Once
in awhile it’s fun to think about where some of our “old
sayings” really came from. Think about these how things really were
“in the olden days.”
Back in the 1500’s most people got married in June because they took
their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by
June. However, since they were starting to smell, Brides
carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom
today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
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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!"
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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 cats and other small animals (mice, 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 mess 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
into existence.
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The
floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, "Dirt poor."
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The
wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery In the winter when
wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the 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.
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In
those “olden 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."
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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."
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They
would cut off a little to share with guests, and would then all
sit around and chew
the fat.
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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.
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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 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; "holding a wake."
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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."
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And that's the truth.
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And where did "Made from
scratch" come from?
"From
Scratch" was a figure of speech that literally meant
(originally) starting a race from a line scratched in the dirt.
Eventually, it leached into pugilism (boxing), cricket (British
baseball), and golf. It meant pretty much the same thing in those
sports.
Starting with nothing to one's advantage. Over the
centuries, technology created short cuts to everything including
cooking, and the meaning (when applied to preparing food) was used
to indicate that a particular item or an entire meal was made from
ingredients that were found in one's pantry. In other words,
not made from a mix, or ready to cook.
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MIND YOUR P'S AND Q'S..........Another origin comes from English pubs and taverns of the 17th
century. Bartenders
would keep a watch on the alcohol consumption of the patrons;
keeping an eye on the pints and quarts that were consumed. As a
reminder to the patrons, the bartender would recommend they
"mind their Ps and Qs."
This may also have been a reminder to bartenders not to confuse the
two units, written as "p" and "q" on the tally
slate.
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