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Where did piss poor come from? Us older people need to learn something new every day…just to keep the gray 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 a day 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 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
whiskey. 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.
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