BS: Childhood folk medicine

Subject: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 23 Feb 12 - 11:33 PM

"Bride Judy" and I were just having a conversation about some of the weird "medicines" and treatments that our parents used on us when we were too young to defend ourselves. I'm only 174, but my memory is still intact. Here's a few of the weird recipes I well remember my father forcing on me:

To break a fever, my father would give me a tablespoon of turpentine mixed with sugar.

For a sore throat, my father would coat my throat and chest with "vapor rub" and then wrap my throat in his old wool sock.

When I started to develope a goitor (sp?), my father would make me drink three drops of iodine every day.

These "cures" all worked well. I no longer have fevers, sore throats, or any goitors (sp?). And I'm still alive.

Anyone else out there remember any homegraown cures that worked without killing you? bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 12:54 AM

Putting a sugar poultice on boils......kids always had boils in those days, usually on their rear ends.

Being warned never to eat fruit seeds - watermelon, orange, anything - because they would grow inside you. And never swallowing chewing gum, because it would stick your insides together.

To this day I can't bear to even inadvertently swallow fruit seeds.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 01:07 AM

And yet today ... we can buy bags of roasted sunflower seeds! Go figure!

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 01:13 AM

When I was a youngster, 100 years ago, we raised chickens and turkeys. This was during WW2 ... it was part of our "war effort" And yes, as a kritter, I spaded the soil and I had my own small "victory garden." (I told you I was old).

Now I suspect that this next story might be not believed. But it's true. I know ... I was there. As a youngster, if I happened to cut myself, or get a bad scrape, my father would take me to the chicken yard and put a handfull of fresh ... warm ... chickenshit on the wound. I kid you not. The wound always healed very quickly without any scar., bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 02:20 AM

Old Doctor Morrice's take on the vapour rub, when my mother proposed it for (would you believe) my asthma:

"Mrs Burrrke" (he was very Scottish) "You micht as well paint the rrruddy back doorrr grrreen!"

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 07:18 AM

Laxative chocolate, my mother used to occasionally give me little squares of it when I was small, does anyone remember it?

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 07:29 AM

If there was a tar wagon around we were advised to take a deep breath of the fumes to help our chests!

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 07:33 AM

My mum, being Irish, had tremendous faith in old remedies. She always rubbed her gold wedding ring on a stye. I got a lard ball rolled in sugar for coughs. I had to wee in the china 'po' and dip my feet in to cure chilblains (ugh!) and liquid paraffin was administered for constipation (ghastly). Our old Scottish doctor from Fife was almost unintelligible, his accent was so strong, but I remember his recommendation for convalescence after measles: "Gie hurr guid strrrrong brrroth!" We were usually as tough as old boots, not obese, never had asthma, weren't allowed to whinge, and played outside in all weathers.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 07:37 AM

Oh yes, Black belt, I remember that! The whole street of children would be marched out to stand near the road repairers, breathing in deeply! I still love the smell, but I believe such stuff is carcinogenic, as it contains benzine?

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 08:12 AM

I remember that laxitive chocolate. Tasted good but sure did funny things to me. bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 08:25 AM

Bob - some old cures are NOT silly.
From Wikipedia
A goitre or goiter (Latin gutteria, struma), is a swelling in the thyroid gland,[1] which can lead to a swelling of the neck or larynx (voice box). Goitre is a term that refers to an enlargement of the thyroid and can be associated with a thyroid gland that is functioning properly or not.

Worldwide, over 90% cases of goitre are caused by iodine deficiency.

Your father clearly knew his stuff...

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 08:56 AM

My grandmother administered soapy water enemas at the slightest hint of constipation. I don't actually remember being constipated as a child, but I certainly remember the enemas. I'm not sure if they were medically prudent or if Grandma was just a pervert.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 08:57 AM

That's very accurate. Goiters ran in my father's family. Some of my aunts and uncles had HUGE goiters. They were all Finnish, and there is a now well known connection of the traditional Finnish diet and goiters. I was required to drink three drops of iodine a day, with water, starting abou 1948. By 1950 "iodized table salt" became available in America. The doctor said this would do the trick and I use it today, as do my children.

Thanks for the observation. bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 09:02 AM

There's another "folk cure" that my father used on me occasionally. It was EXTREMLY EFFECTIVE! And as we lived out in the woods, it was very available and cost my father nothing ... but it cost me dearly.

It was a cure for BAD BEHAVIOR. The cure went like this: He would hand me a knife and send me out to the woods to cut a switch. And it had to be a BIG SWITCH. Then he would lay me across his lap and apply that magic switch to my behind. But he would always preface it by saying: "This hurts me more than it hurts you."

The cure was perfect. I don't ever remember repeating the same bad behavior ... I had to come up with new one! bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Monique
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 09:04 AM

BWL, she wasn't pervert, our bowels don't like the soda soap is made with. It's efficient but it's not good for them and should be avoided.
Didn't any of you get flax flour poultice on your chest when you'd gotten a cold?

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 09:09 AM

My brother often got styes on his eyes. Father would put raw bacon over the eye for an hour or two. It worked as I remember. bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 09:58 AM

When we kids played in the woods, which we did most every day, we would often get stung by "nettles." We had a quick and effective remedy: We would crush the stalk of a "fern" and smear the juice on the sting. The stinging would stop quickly.

Then make a spear of the rest of the fern, throw it at someone, and run like crazy! bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 10:00 AM

My father also had a very effective "cure" for bad language. It involved a bar of soap and my mouth! bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 10:08 AM

Onion tea served with honey for a cold.

Some sort of pink ointment spread on your chest and covered with a (clean) diaper which was taped down.

Vicks Vaporub in a pan of water boiling on a hot plate.

Creoturpin cough medicine. Until recently I thought it was made from creosote and turpentine, but it was only an opiate.

Cod liver oil.

Smith Brothers Cough Drops, both black and red.

Ludens Cough Drops, red and "regular."

Pine Brothers Cough Drops, all flavors.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 10:27 AM

Being a Finn, my father also believed in the power of whiskey and vodka ... especially vodka. He would occasionally give me a shot of whiskey, when I was little, as a cure for middle of the night coughing. bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 11:00 AM

Bob, your brother must have been peeing in the alley a lot. According to my Dad that was what caused a stye.

Fletcher's Castoria seemed to be my Grandmother's favorite thing along with several other cure-alls for bowel and stomach problems. She was a bit nutso for that sorta' crap.....so to speak. Matter of fact I recall a lot of her generation seemed to believe nothing was more important to good health than a functioning digestive system. The problem was that you didn't dare mention any irregularity from normal or you would be pumped full of something at both ends!


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Becca72
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 11:20 AM

My mother gave us orange juice with baking soda mixed in if we were nauseous. It worked - made me puke every time!

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 12:05 PM

OH ... I also remember that 7-up and saltine soda crackers cured an upset tummy! bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Bert
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 12:09 PM

Cod liver oil and malt. They used to sell the stuff mixed.

Boracic Ointment for a stye, it worked really well but for some reason you can't buy it now.

Coal tar soap for nits.

Senna pod tea to keep you regular.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 12:14 PM

My brother, he was older and bigger than me, had a REALLY NEAT TRICK to stop my finger from hurting. If I hurt a finger on my left hand, he would pick up a rock and smash a finger on my right hand. It worked well ... because I forgot all about the pain in my left hand. bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 12:17 PM

By the time I came along (9th child) my mother must have gotten weary- I was never 'treated' for a cold with the hot-boiled-onions-tied-in-a-bag-onto-the-feet as they were. My sister said that the worst part was in the morning when the mess was COLD.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 12:52 PM

My dad was the one who always pushed folk medicine on me when I was a kid. I remember once he told me, in all apparent seriousness, that he was a doctor. It was total bullshit, of course, but he expected me to believe it. I didn't. It was totally obvious to me that (1) he was too poorly educated to be a doctor (He couldn't spell worth shit, or do simple math.), and (2) if he was a real doctor, he wouldn't be working as a janitor.

Why do parents think they can get away with telling such ridiculous lies to kids, without losing all their respect and trust? I guess that's a subject for another thread.

Most of the time it was laxative of one kind or another. Fletcher's Castoria when I was little, and later, Milk of Magnesia.

Years later I was going through a trunk in the basement and I found a pamphlet about digestion written by a doctor. The doctor said he had examined hundreds of cadavers and determined that 9 out of 10 of them were constipated! Ergo, constipation must have been the cause of death! No doubt this was where my dad got his ideas. I think the pamphlet must have been written in the 1920s.

The theory was: if shit stays in your body too long, it breeds germs, which then infect your whole body. And since any disease can be caused by germs (he thought), and the most likely source of germs is shit, then it makes sense to treat any disease with a laxative, right? Well, that's what he did.

He said it was important to keep "reg'lar." He was proud that he had a bowel movement every day, and he thought everybody should. If a day went by and he didn't have one, he would take a laxative himself. You can't say he didn't practice what he preached.

If he sensed that I was out of sorts for any reason, such as just being mopey, hanging around the house too much, and watching too much TV, he would ask me "How's yer bowels?" (He pronounced "bowels" to rhyme with "pals.") If I couldn't give him a satisfactory answer, he would insist I take a laxative. (I can't remember exactly what he considered satisfactory.)

Then there was the dosage problem. Apparently he didn't believe that dosages should be scaled down for kids. I think he gave me the same amount he took himself, maybe more, for good measure, since he didn't know but what I had been constipated for several days. And he probably had built up some resistance, having taken laxatives so often himself. So the laxatives he gave me often caused explosive diarrhea. I remember my mother, who had to clean up after me, shouting: "You gave him too much!"

In time I learned that if I felt the slightest bit ill, I had better not let my father find out about it, because the cure was worse than the disease.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 04:20 PM

Oh, yeah! "Regularity" was a real fetish back in those Glorious Days of Yesteryear. If a kid didn't have a daily dump, out would come all sorts of bottles, spoons, and sometimes things too fierce to mention. One of the bottle and spoon schticks was, indeed, Fletcher's Castoria (castor oil base, I'm pretty sure, hence the brand name).

And the chocolate covered laxative? If I remember correctly, the brand name was Ex-Lax. Chocolate flavored Roto-Rooter.

One George Washington Carver (CLICKY), a former slave who became a scientist and researcher, maintained that something akin to miracles could be wrought with peanut oil, including curing the after-effects of polio.

I had polio at the age of two, which rendered my right leg paralyzed and partially paralyzed my left leg. For a maybe a year or two, a couple of nights a week my father massaged my legs with warm peanut oil and put me through an exercise routine. It was a little hard to tell if there was any actual improvement, but it certainly didn't cure the condition. It was later determined that there was no noticeable effect from the peanut oil, but that the massage and exercise was, indeed, beneficial.

Warm peanut oil was often dropped into the ear of a youngster having an ear-ache. There, too, relief probably came, not from the peanut oil per se, but from the warmth of the oil.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 04:38 PM

Hi Don ... Yes, I well remember that hot oil in the ears.

When my brother (older and bigger than me) discovered wimmen, he started coming home with a lot of black eyes. I remember that Dad's cure was a piece of beefsteak taped to the eye over night. bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 07:38 PM

Our family cure for nausea was baking soda in vinegar, drunk while it fizzed like crazy. I think my parents did start buying AlkaSeltzer while I was still quite young, so I can't really remember if the soda and vinegar was worse than nothing, or just how I reacted to it. I can't imagine that it would actually have helped.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Little Robyn
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 10:29 PM

If we had the 'flu and couldn't shake it off, Mum would give us Langdale's essence of cinnamon. Disgusting stuff! Burned your mouth out! But it seemed to work.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 10:41 PM

Ahhh yes ... cinnamon! Remember those tiny balls of cotton soaked in cinnamon oil as an overnight cure for toothaches! bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 10:42 PM

BUT WAIT ... I'm forgetting all about mustard plasters! sheeeuh! bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Feb 12 - 11:03 PM

Oil of cloves put on an aching tooth until you could get to the dentist.

Fletcher's Castoria is now Fletcher's Laxative; it contains senna as the active ingredient.

Mineral oil for a laxative.

Tea and toast for meals when you were sick. Dunk the buttered toast in the sweetened tea.

A hot toddy as a last resort for "cutting the phlegm" in a cold.

Half a phenobarbital as a "nerve medicine" when we were really, really, really, really acting up -- and I mean ACTING UP. My mother had checked this out with our pediatrician.

Vinegar and honey. Honey and vinegar.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 12:04 AM

how about "milk toast" when you were recovering from the flu. Toast, lots of butter, floated in a bowl of warm milk. And your father sitting beside you encouraging you to enjoy it! Ahhhhh ... sweet childhood! bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 11:59 AM

Eliza,if I had the time to list here the many things to which I was repeatedly exposed in those bygone years when ignorance was bliss, good people like you in this cafe would immediately start praying for my future well being. Have a happy weekend!

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 01:57 PM

Thank you Manuel! Certainly no-one mollycoddled us children in those days did they? Medicaton was rather brutal, kill-or-cure! (I've had a nice Saturday, found a lovely top which fitted me, then I realised I was in the Maternity Department of the shop! Red face!!)

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Fred Bailey
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 02:38 PM

Any condition that seemed to approach the flu or a bad cold would have my German (2nd generation) mother reaching for the family pint of whiskey. (This in a family of complete abstainers.) The most clear result was that in my final years I must content myself with good beers and wines, or even an occasional tequila. I cannot bear the taste or even the smell of the finest bourbons or Scotches.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 03:23 PM

Well even to this day if I have a headache I reach for the Paracetamol, and if the aches are more muscular then Ibroprofen. This is pretty widespread in the Folk Communities of the UK. Aspirin is used for all sorts of reasons, in fact, a trip to your local Chemist is a real museum of such Folk Remedies, which are passed on parent to child in time honoured tradition.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 04:14 PM

My father was also obsessed with the common cold. According to him, colds were dangerous: an untreated cold could turn into pneumonia and you could die. It was unthinkable to let a cold go untreated. I don't know how widespread this attitude was. It seems most people nowadays consider a cold just an inconvenience to be endured for a few days.

Here my memory gets kind of hazy. I can't remember how he matched up treatments with symptoms. Some of the treatments he used were:

• A spoonful of turpentine, with sugar added to make it more palatable.

• Gargling with salt water.

• Vicks Vaporub, sometimes rubbed on your chest, sometimes stuck up your nose, sometimes letting a little dab of it melt on your tongue.

• Vaseline was sometimes used instead of Vicks Vaporub.

• And of course, there were the laxatives.

*
Once when I was stung on the arm by a wasp, my dad put tobacco juice on it. This happened while we were visiting my uncle's farm. My dad wasn't a tobacco user then, so he asked my uncle for some chewing tobacco, which he then chewed and put on my arm. By the time he did this, it had already stopped hurting, so I don't know why he bothered.

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 04:52 PM

Great posting, Jim Dixon. In my home, there was also that very strong faith in Vicks Vaporub. If I'm not mistaken the manufacturers warn users that it is meant only for external use. In spite of this, we would apply it on sore areas of the throat whenever we came down with a sore-throat. Of course, there were other over-the-counter medications, eg Bengue's Balsam, that we were very careful in using. Imagine my shock, therefore, when many years later my Afro-Caribbean laundrywoman, now of blessed memory, in extolling the virtues of this balsam, told me and my wife that she even used it in her eyes!

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Deckman
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 05:57 PM

When I was younger ... 100 years ago ... my brother and I used to peel the bark off of cascara trees that grew in our woods. We would then sell the bark to a company that turned it into laxitive. bob

Subject: RE: BS: Childhood folk medicine
From: Bert
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 07:31 PM

Of course the government were in on the conspiracy. Remember those little bottle of concentrated orange juice. It was really bitter stuff. I can't remember exactly what it tasted like, but it certainly wasn't oranges.