'Old Sayings' 

Do you know some old sayings. Email us at frinterp@mcn.org

Baths were generally a big tub of hot water. The man of the house has the privilege of bathing first in the nice clean water, than all the other sons, oldest to youngest. Then the woman of the house, followed by the daughters. Last was the baby. By this time the bath water must have been pretty dirty and hard to see to the bottom of the tub. So the saying "don't throw the baby out with the bath water" comes from this bath tradition. 

It is said the reason brides started carrying flowers was to hide the way everyone smelled around them. Flowers generally bloom in June. Thus a "June Bride".

In houses of long ago the roofs were often thatched. The bugs and such would fall through to your nice clean bed. So they made big corner posts at the corners of the bed and hung a sheet over the top of the corner posts. Hence, the beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies. 

The floor was usually dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor".  In the wealthy houses with slate floors they would get slippery in the winter. So they would spread thresh on the floor to help from slipping. As the winter wore on they kept adding more thresh. By the end of winter the thresh was spilling to the outside. A piece of wood would be placed at the entry way, hence the word "thresh hold".

Another sign of wealth was having fresh pork. When friends came over for a special meal or special celebration they would bring out the bacon to show it off. This was when a man would "bring home the bacon".  Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and the guests got the top, or the "upper crust".