The Truth About Shapes And Boundaries (I'm Not Yanking Your Chain)
We really don't watch too much TV in our house... more video games and music, but I stumbled across a TV show on the History Channel while I wasn't feeling well this afternoon, and decided to take a chance on it. I mean, what's the worse thing that could happen? I could fall asleep or change the channel. Right? Yes, it is hard for me to sit still, but I did. And, glad, too! It was called ”How The States Got Their Shapes & Boundaries” on the History Channel. Very cool show. I recommend it to everyone. I even heard where “quit yanking my chain” came from. In the mines they used to lay a piece of chain in front of the “thunder bucket” on the tracks so it wouldn’t get away from them while doing their "business". The "thunder bucket" was their bathroom on wheels...a mine cart with a seat and a hole...and without the chain? A runaway "thunder bucket"! Cracked me up! PIMP LOL. Hope your night shapes up to be one with no boundaries...cuz with God all things are possible! Never give up! Like the photo above says: Stick to it!! Step out into the impossibles...to see what is possible! And, I'm not yanking your chain! I've seen the impossibles become the possibles! I know! Oh, and don't forget to check out the show. Trace
We really don't watch too much TV in our house... more video games and music, but I stumbled across a TV show on the History Channel while I wasn't feeling well this afternoon, and decided to take a chance on it. I mean, what's the worse thing that could happen? I could fall asleep or change the channel. Right? Yes, it is hard for me to sit still, but I did. And, glad, too! It was called ”How The States Got Their Shapes & Boundaries” on the History Channel. Very cool show. I recommend it to everyone. I even heard where “quit yanking my chain” came from. In the mines they used to lay a piece of chain in front of the “thunder bucket” on the tracks so it wouldn’t get away from them while doing their "business". The "thunder bucket" was their bathroom on wheels...a mine cart with a seat and a hole...and without the chain? A runaway "thunder bucket"! Cracked me up! PIMP LOL. Hope your night shapes up to be one with no boundaries...cuz with God all things are possible! Never give up! Like the photo above says: Stick to it!! Step out into the impossibles...to see what is possible! And, I'm not yanking your chain! I've seen the impossibles become the possibles! I know! Oh, and don't forget to check out the show. Trace
you are so good at this I hope your writing it all down on paper to publish a book because you are GOOD !!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLOVE YA
MOM
Interesting History
ReplyDeleteThey 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.
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.
In the 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. Funny! Read next comment for more.
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
ReplyDeletetomatoes, 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 et 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.
History is not boring... Add yours!!!