West Ham Cockney Boys

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West Ham Cockney Boys


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    Learn about our past from ... Old sayings

    daib0
    daib0
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    Post  daib0 Thu 31 Dec 2015, 11:34 am

    unashamed, I've nicked this from another forum



    Old sayings

    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 with saying woven in:

    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 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.

    We think we have austerity now, those poor b*gg*rs didn't stand a chance....
    daib0
    daib0
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    Post  daib0 Thu 31 Dec 2015, 4:34 pm

    More ... the origin of sayings such as:-



    Gone to pot - When a farm animal was past its producing days it was slaughtered and went into the pot. Anything past its prime has gone to pot.


    Bakers Dozen - means thirteen. Bakers used to be punished for selling people short in their orders so to be sure an extra loaf was added to the dozen to ensure they made the weight.


    Chock a block - When block and tackle where used on board sailing ships when the block and tackle ran out it hit the chocks and had nowhere further to go so became chock a block.


    Nail your colours to the mast - A sign of surrender at sea was to lower your colours (flags) if you nailed your colours to the mast they could not be lowered so you could never change your mind or sides.


    Beyond the pale - Pale used to be an area of resided over by an official or lord. If you lived within this area you had their protection but if not you were from beyond the pale and on your own.


    Don't look a gift horse in the mouth - You tell the age of a horse by the condition of its teeth so ... if you had been given a gift of a horse you should be thankful and not check to see if it was old.

    Give a wide berth - Ships moored in harbour are said to be in their berth. For another ship to pass it was always better to give them a wide berth so as not to risk hitting a berthed ship as this would always be the moving ships fault.


    By hook or by crook - Landowners used to hire shepherds to look after their flocks, it was a common understanding that the shepherds whilst out for days on end could eat anything they could reach from the landowners fruit trees etc as long as it was withing reach of the hook on their crook.


    'Flash in the pan'. It relates to the old flintlock muskets when the gunpowder in the 'pan' of the musket 'flared' but didn't fire.

    Charlie Ham
    Charlie Ham
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    Post  Charlie Ham Fri 01 Jan 2016, 9:47 am

    Interesting, thanks.
    Jiggs
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    Post  Jiggs Fri 01 Jan 2016, 9:29 pm

    I have seen these before daib0, but things like this fascinate me.  Any more?
    Campo
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    Post  Campo Sat 02 Jan 2016, 9:22 pm

    You dude, I think the theory of gone to pot might be wrong man

    Learn about our past from ... Old sayings Cheech-and-chong-Up-In-Smoke
    SemiOldIron
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    Post  SemiOldIron Mon 04 Jan 2016, 8:45 am

    Campo wrote:You dude, I think the theory of gone to pot might be wrong man

    Learn about our past from ... Old sayings Cheech-and-chong-Up-In-Smoke

    I think I've missed the point here.... what's the significance of the photo of a Bradford taxi?

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