Sparrowhawk
09-04-03, 01:11 PM
Well, thisis the first time I heard of this, but makes sense to me.
While looking for retirement jokes for a friend of mine I ran into a web site that has some interesting bits of iinformation, don't know if its accurate but certianily entertaining.
http://www.retirementwithapurpose.com/jokehistory.html
According to that web site in the 1500s:
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 thought 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."
While looking for retirement jokes for a friend of mine I ran into a web site that has some interesting bits of iinformation, don't know if its accurate but certianily entertaining.
http://www.retirementwithapurpose.com/jokehistory.html
According to that web site in the 1500s:
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 thought 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."