OK gang, now that you have eaten all the leftover Halloween candy it’s time to plan for another monthly dinner.
WHEN: Thursday, Nov 10th (again it’s always the second Thursday of the month)
WHERE: Ghyslain on Market, 721 E. Mkt
TIME: 6pm
Web Address: http://www.ghyslain.com/restaurants/ghyslain-market/daily-menu
Phone: 690-8645 use this unless you email me
I will make the reservations about noon on Nov 7th.
Hey gang.
Need one person willing to go with Harry and Me tomorrow night, Thursday, to the Henry Clay hotel and act as “Security” for the Butterfly Ball benefiting the Heuser Hearing and Learning Center. We will be fed dinner, coat and tie necessary, be there by 5pm and finished about 8pm.
Where did “piss poor” come from?
We older people need to learn something new every day … just to keep the grey matter tuned up.
Where did the expression “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 the 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 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”.
And that’s the truth.
Now, whoever said History was boring!!! So get out there and educate someone! ~~~
So we just posted up some new photos. After going through the Attic looking for some old paperwork we found a box of old slides. We called around and MotoPhoto was the only place that do anything with them. These slides are over 40 years old and many have faded in color, but we were surprised with what they were able to get. Check out the digital files at the site: http://broeckerfamily.com/gallery/KurtBroeckerSlides
Those that will be attending the Oct dinner:
Bruce/Linda
Paul/Kay
Brad/Carla Sue
Tom/Betty
Janet
Rod/Peggy
TK/Shari/ME
Kurt/ Mary (maybe)
OK people, IS ANYBODY OUT THERE????
Responding so far:
Bruce/Linda
Kurt/Mary
TK/Shari/ME
Time’s a wastin. Everyone on vacation?
One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas
gift…
The next year, I didn’t buy her a gift.
When she asked me why, I replied,
“Well, you still haven’t used the gift I bought you last year!”
And that’s how the fight started…..
________________________________
My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while
we were in bed.
I turned to her and said, ‘Do you want to have sex?’
‘No,’ she answered. I then said,
‘Is that your final answer?’
She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying, ‘Yes..’
So I said, “Then I’d like to phone a friend.”
And that’s when the fight started…
________________________________
I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took
my order first.
“I’ll have the rump steak, rare, please.”
He said, “Aren’t you worried about the mad cow?”
“Nah, she can order for herself.”
And that’s when the fight started…..
_______________________________
My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school
reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his
drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.
I asked her, “Do you know him?”
“Yes”, she sighed, “He’s my old boyfriend. I understand he took to
drinking
right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn’t been
sober since.”
“My God!” I said, “Who would think a person could go on
celebrating that long?”
And then the fight started…
________________________________
When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife kept hinting
to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had
something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat,
making beer.. Always something more important to me. Finally she
thought of a clever way to make her point.
When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall
grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing
scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into
the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again
I handed her a toothbrush. I said, “When you finish cutting the
grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.”
The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.
______________________________
My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
She asked, “What’s on TV?”
I said, “Dust.”
And then the fight started…
________________________________
Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my
lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the
boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential
downpour. The wind was blowing 50mph, so I pulled back into the
garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather
would be bad all day.
I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back
into bed. I cuddled up to my wife’s back; now with a different
anticipation, and whispered, “The weather out there is terrible.”
My loving wife of 5 years replied, “And, can you believe my
stupid husband is out fishing in that?”
And that’s how the fight started…
_______________________________
My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming
anniversary.
She said, “I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about
3 seconds.”
I bought her a bathroom scale.
And then the fight started…….
______________________________
After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for
Social Security.
The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s License to
verify my age.
I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at
home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have
to go home and come back later.
The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’.
So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.
She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for
me’ and she processed my Social Security application.
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at
the Social Security office. She said, ‘You should have dropped
your pants. You might have gotten disability too.’
And then the fight started…
________________________________
My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.
She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
“I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you
to pay me a compliment.’
I replied, “Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.”
And then the fight started……..
________________________________
I rear-ended a car this morning…the start of a RE AL LY bad day!
The driver got out of the other car, and he was a DWARF!!
He looked up at me and said ‘I am NOT Happy!’
So I said, ‘Well, which one ARE you then?’
That’s how the fight started.
This is how pumpkin is made!!!
Have you ever googled yourself. I recently googled our last name, leaving out my first name. What did I get. Surprisingly not much until I included our state. There is lots when it comes to that. Our involvement in the community, the work time we spend. Our businesses and best yet the history of what we have attempted. I tried to run for office and the number 1 link on google is the facebook fan page we setup.
One of the weird things that stood out is addresses. I knew that there was a street named Broecker Blvd but I didn’t think they would show up with the search. I guess that is one nice thing about having a weird spelled last name.
OK dinner gang, here we go after a short break in September. Not far from our August location.
WHAT: Café Classico
LOCATION: 2144 Frankfort Ave
DATE: Thursday, Oct 13th.
TIME: 6pm
Website: http://www.caffe-classico.com
so that you can see the menu.
I will make the reservations on Tuesday Oct 11th at noon but if you can’t make up your mind by then you get to call for yourself, 895-0076