- "Mind your p's and q's"
Ale was ordered in pints and quarts and when the crowd got rowdy, the bartender would tell them to 'mind their p's and q's.'
When you drank too much out of a "tankard" you were said to be "tanked" ... if you got so "tanked" that you passed out, there was a chance that somebody might think you had actually died. Since back then they didn't have experience with taking pulses, they often buried people alive who were actually in a drunken stupor or otherwise comatose.
A bombard is a leather jug, which holds 8 pints or 4 quarts. A full bombard of ale would make you drunk.
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."
This saying supposedly came from an English pub. A whistle was baked right into the rim of a ceramic beer mug. The crowd would get loud and it became hard for the bartender to hear people ordering drinks. They would then blow the whistle for another drink in order to 'wet their whistle.'
 Bar tabs used to be recorded on slate with chalk, once the bar tab was paid off the bartender would "wipe the slate clean" enabling the consumer to make a fresh start.
Meaning to celebrate a baby's birth with alcohol normally after a christening.
A leather jug treated with tar pitch to help it hold its shape.
Glasses were hand blown, thus flat-bottomed glasses were difficult to produce. Those with curved bottoms would tend to tumble over when placed on the table, and too many tumblers of whiskey would make you a little bit tipsy.
|
If you have any questions or would like to submit feedback on this website please use the General Enquiries/Feedback Form, we are always pleased to read your comments.
