CRAP OFF OF YOU!

Crap off of you! Have you ever heard anybody say they didn’t have to take any crap off of you? Or maybe you’ve said this yourself! Ever wonder where the expression came from? Well, here’s the unofficial story:

Back in the days before sanitation laws were passed, probably in the 14th century or so, people who lived up on a hill would simply empty their pots out the window, or set up their toilets (very primitive, usually a hole in a piece of wood) so that the “crap” & other unmentionable substances would drain over onto the next lower apartment or house! How did I figure this one out? I watched a TERRIBLE show on YouTube about sanitation conditions, or lack thereof, back in the 14th century or so. This particular show dealt with London, but the same fellow made some other TERRIBLE shows about other major cities at the time & later. I didn’t watch them, needless to say. He went into the fact that butcher shops in town would simply toss the unusable parts of animals out into the streets, & people passing by would have to put “extenders” onto their shoes & boots in order to be able to walk thru all this garbage. Eventually, of course, it all attracted rats, the Black Plague developed as a result, wiping out A THIRD of the population of London, thus waking people up & getting some necessary sanitation laws passed. These required butchering to be done outside the city limits, & they required everyone to hook up their sewer system to the sewer system, so that one’s downhill neighbors wouldn’t have to “take any crap off of...” - well, you get the picture!

Copyright 2012 by Preston Smith