My brother, Billy sent me an article and I challenged myself to write a poem about it for the blog. It’s all about idioms.
Back in the day…..
June became the month for weddings and here’s the reason why. Folks took their yearly baths in May and smelled bad by July.
To extend the bride’s fresh scent she carried a bouquet. Thus began the custom most brides follow still today.
When things got oh so rank and May finally came around. They all took a bath, first the oldest then on down.
By the time the youngest got to bathe be it son or daughter. You just might lose the baby in the dirty old bath water.
Hence it’s said today though it’s pretty sad. When you throw something away, don’t throw the good out with the bad.
Lead cups were used to drink either ale or whiskey. The combination made the imbibers go way beyond being tipsy
If someone found them on the street, they thought they must be dead, but there was a chance they’d just passed out instead.
The family laid them out on the table for two days and sat around and ate and drank resulting in a phrase.
The afflicted might be dead or survive with a headache. The party that the family had was called “holding a wake.”
Once upon a time, bread was divided up by status. Workers ate the bottom, always burnt but sometimes gratis.
The family saved the top and ate the middle, because they knew they must. The guests ate the top and were called the “upper crust.”
The wealthy had something other than dirt make up their floor. The poor had only dirt, hence they were called, “dirt poor.”
In old small villages folks ran out of room to bury the dead. They dug up the coffins and took the bones to the bone-house instead.
They reused the graves where the bodies of the bones had been lying and what they saw was simply horrifying.
They found scratch marks on the inside in one of twenty-five. They realized they had been burying people still alive.
A string was tied to the corps’ wrist, led through the coffin and tied to a bell. If the bell rang that night they knew all was not well.
Someone had to stay in the graveyard listening for the bell to ring. You never could tell when some poor soul would pull that bell ringing string.
It was a long night if you get my drift. That’s why they called it the “graveyard shift.”
Now I’ll sit back and relax. I’ve written about the whole ball of wax.
Those 70ish Girls 