Remedies

[Furryanimal]

​What's a remedy your parents/grandparents/great grandparents swore by?

 

[Ellejay]

Lemon juice in warm water first thing in the morning.

 

[C'est Moi]

Vick's Salve. (We never called it "Vapo-Rub" back then. )

 

[Wren]

Warm salt water gargle for sore throats

 

[Aunt Bea]

If my stepfather cut a finger when he was away from home he would look for a spider web and twirl it around the cut to stop the bleeding and act as a temporary bandage until he got home.

 

[Yongy]

My mother gave us cod liver oil and malt every morning, YUCK. She gave us a laxative every Friday evening. If we had earache she poured olive oil into the ear. It is probably due to that bit of stupidity on her part that I have scarring and some deafness in my left ear, according to the medics!

 

[Pappy]

Geritol yuck....every morning before school started.

 

[Tommy]

Warm salt water gargle for sore throats

Still sound advice, as well as for any abrasions or sores in the mouth.

 

[Tommy]

Coke syrup over ice chips for stomach upset.

 

[Ronni]

Gamophen soap. It's a medicated soap that the doctor prescribed for the boils my Dad would get around his neck where his collar rubbed. My Mum decided it was a miracle soap, and she put it on everything from cuts and scrapes to sore muscles. She'd shave bits of it off and rub it on the skin, or put a piece of it over a cut and bangage the whole thing. I once found her rubbing it on her forehead for a headache.

 

[Sunny]

Wren, my mother believed in the salt water gargle also.

 

[IKE]

As a pup when visiting my grandmother I was always afraid to say something was bothering me because she'd always reach for the castor oil bottle which apparently was her 'cure all' remedy.....that stuff tasted just plum nasty and she knew it because sometimes I'd get a big spoonful as punishment for being a bad little boy (which was frequently ).

 

[Falcon]

They called it "Castoria" as I recall.

 

[Butterfly]

Coke syrup over ice chips for stomach upset.

Geez -- I hadn't thought of this in a LOOONG time, but my mom did this, too.

 

[jujube]

My grandfather stepped on a rusty nail and soaked his foot in kerosene. He said that was the standard treatment for puncture wounds up in the mountains. He didn't get tetanus, so....

 

[RadishRose]

It was said that when my grandmother was young she let a doctor into the house once. He started putting leeches on her and she threw him out.

 

[Aunt Bea]

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

Vicks for colds, Epson salts for aches and pains, baking soda for heartburn and later on my Mom would buy R.E.M for coughs. I have no idea what the letters stood for but it was great tasting. It was kept under the bathroom sink in the cabinet. On occasion I would take a swig.

 

[rgp]

"Hot-Totties" for a cold. Warm water , whisky,honey,& lemon [sometimes cinnamon] all stirred. Drink that, Then a rub down with Vick's Vapo-Rub, then tucked into blankets so tight...I have no idea how she did it?

But....I made it to school every day.

 

[Lord Elpus]

I grew up in a series of children's homes. The ONE thing they all had in common was the spoonful of Malt Treacle we kids HAD to have every morning.
I didn't mind it,but didn't understand why it was so vehemently adhered to. But - I have NEVER had a cold...not EVER. Hmmm....

 

[Furryanimal]

"Hot-Totties" for a cold. Warm water , whisky,honey,& lemon [sometimes cinnamon] all stirred. Drink that, Then a rub down with Vick's Vapo-Rub, then tucked into blankets so tight...I have no idea how she did it?

But....I made it to school every day.

I remember being given hot milk and whiskey.It was almost worth being ill