12 Weird Things Our Ancestors Did

If you believe that people were less eccentric in the past than they are today, think of their fashions and traditions. Maybe you’ll change your opinion. We’ve gathered twelve really strange things that our ancestors thought normal.
TIMESTAMPS
The first and second sleep 0:32
Live alarm clocks 1:11
Dresses for boys 1:49
Chopines 2:30
Bloodletting against all diseases 3:04
Poor hygiene 3:33
Post-mortem photos 4:09
Radioactive beauty products 4:44
Heroin as a cough remedy 5:35
Smoking onboard planes 6:09
Bathing machines 6:35
Rocks as toilet paper 7:11
#interestingfacts #historicalfacts
SUMMARY
- The first sleep started at sunset and lasted until about midnight; then people would wake up and stay awake for 2-3 hours. Some used that time to pray or read, and some spent it with their family or neighbors.
- A knocker-upper was a profession that existed from the mid-18th century until the 1950s. Their job was to wake people who had to get up early. They knocked on their clients’ windows with sticks or shot at them with peashooters.
- From the 16th century and until around 1920, it was customary for little boys up until a certain age (4-8 years) to wear dresses. The main reason was perhaps the high cost of clothing: dresses were easier to make "to grow into."
- Chopines, also known as zoccoli or pianelle, are a kind of platform shoe up to 20 inches (50 cm) high. Small wonder that those who wore them required the help of servants in order not to fall victim to fashion.
- This treatment mode was popular for 2,000 years up until the early 20th century. Bloodletting was practiced to treat any ailment and often did more harm than good, weakening the patient even further.
- Isabella I of Castille was proud of the fact that she only washed twice in her life: at birth and before her wedding. According to one testimony, a cavalier once made a comment upon her dirty hands and nails, to which the Queen replied, “Oh, if only you could see my feet!”
- Another custom that today seems very bizarre. However, in the 19th century, it was a way to preserve the memory of deceased loved ones.
- In the early 20th century, radiation was perceived exclusively as a positive phenomenon, which swindlers didn’t fail to take advantage of: you could buy cosmetics, food, and drinks enriched with radium and thorium, radioactive souvenirs, and even devices for saturating water with radioactive elements.
- Surprisingly, 100 years ago, heroin was considered a harmless alternative to morphine and was sold in pharmacies as a cough medicine. It was later discovered that heroin turns into morphine in the liver, and in 1924 its use was prohibited.
- As recently as 50 or 60 years ago, smoking wasn’t regarded as that bad a habit. People didn’t deny themselves this dubious pleasure even during flights, regardless of the presence of other passengers.
- Unlike us, people in the 18th and 19th centuries couldn’t just go into the water on the beach. They had to use bathing machines: special carts that looked like beach huts.
- The list of things people used before the invention of toilet paper could go on and on. It includes plant leaves, corn cobs, coconut shells, sheep wool and cloth (for those who could afford them), sponge on a stick, or just water.
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