1. Baths were taken in a large tub filled with hot water (heated over the fire in the fireplace). The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the sons, 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.”
2. The floor in thatched roof houses were 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. So they spread rushes (the stalks of the threshed grains) on the floors to help them keep their footing (called “thresh”). As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would start slipping outside. A piece of wood placed at the entry way held the thresh inside. Hence, the “threshhold”.
3. 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.”
4. Sometimes poor people 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 that a man could “bring home the bacon”. They would cut a little off to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat”.
5. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach into the food. This happened most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes … for 400 years!
6. 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”.
Wouldn’t it be FUN to live in the Dark Ages? I don’t think so!!
