This is what I get from knowing attornies.
Some historical
facts

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
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:




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 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 ! !
!

So
. . . get out there and educate someone! ~~~ Share these facts
with a friend like I just did ! ! !

 

Here's a southern one.

There is more than one way to skin a cat.


This refers to cleaning a catfish.

 

Thank you, some I had read before and were good to read them again

 

Rule of Thumb, was a law in old England that said you could beat your wife with anything smaller then your thumb.

Whole nine yards, WWII planes ammo belts were nine yards long, pilots would come home and say "I gave him the whole nine yards"

True I can not be sure but these are a few I have heard.