How to Use Health Remedies from the Good Old Days

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By Gail Martin
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My Family (I'm the little one)

Many of my mother’s remedies were applied by her but my Daddy also had an input into my healthy lifestyle as a child. Mother drank lots of coffee but I followed Daddy’s example and never drank coffee or tea and I never smoked. We spent a lot of time outdoors together. Here's Mom's treatments for various ills.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Vicks VapoRub
salt and water
flannel cloth
P&G soap

Step 1

Vicks for coughs

COLDS and COUGHS: I still use and recommend Vicks VapoRub for chest colds and coughs. I’m sure the loving rubbing from my mother’s hands was the key to success. Just a small whiff of that potent mixture takes me back to my childhood days. Most of my grown-up children keep one of those trade-mark squat blue jars handy during our bitter, cold Kansas winters.
Step 2

Salt for sore throats

SORE THROATS: Mother had us gargle warm salt water when we had sore throats. With Vicks rubbed on our throats, Mother wrapped a hot flannel cloth tightly around our necks sending us to an easy sleep for many hours.
Step 3

Watch out!

POISON IVY: I remember my sisters and I would get poison ivy many times every year from early spring to fall. Oh, I hated that itchy stuff. It would show up a day or two after we had been out picking fruit from nature’s bounty including strawberries, gooseberries, elderberries, and sand plums. We even would get poisoned when we went fishing or just rambling along the creeks banks. It was everywhere! We knew to watch for it’s three shiny green leaves but just couldn’t seem to avoid it even when we would pick a bouquet of wild prairie flowers to take home to Mother.

First signs were a red itchy place, then small watery blisters would form. When the blisters broke, the watery mess spread the poison even further. Mother shaved thin slivers from her bar of P&G soap into an old tin can that she placed on a low fire. When the soap was melted she let it cool enough to spread over the ivy blisters. This sealed off the air and the blisters dried up. The worst part was going to bed with this mixture smeared on me. I had to lay real still so the thick congealed soap wouldn’t break off in my bed. If that happened and it usually did, it was like trying to sleep in a bed of crackers.
Step 4

UPSET STOMACH: After we had stomach flu or upset tummy, Mother fixed us warm milk toast with a little bit of cinnamon and sugar. Sometimes she made poached eggs on toast with warm milk and real melted butter. This soft food, made special for me, made it worth being sick. I also liked the toast Mother fried in her iron skillet. It was so different from toasted store-bought bread spread with oleo.