Where did piss
poor come from ?
We
older people need to learn something new every day...
Just to keep the grey matter tuned
up.
Where did "Piss Poor" come from?
Interesting History.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families
used to all pee in a pot.
And then once it was full it was taken and 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" and were the lowest
of the low.
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
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.
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 and fall 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 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.
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 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.
(Getting quite an education, aren't
you?)
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 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!!!
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