THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 17, 13 to go

Where did that come from?

Have you ever wondered where some of our famous saying come from? Why must it rain cats and dogs? Did people really chew the fat? I thought I would do a little research and find out about a few...

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 pet
dogs, cats and their small animals: mice, rats & 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."


The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence
the saying, "dirt poor."

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 and 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."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would
sometimes knock them 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 they started running out of places to bury
people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a
house and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25
coffin were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized
they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a
string on their wrist and lead it through the coffin and up through the
round 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."



Now, I am not 100% sure of the accuracy of these meanings (who can believe everything you find on the internet) but I found it interesting nonetheless.