Unusual home remedies from your family?

chic

chic

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When I was growing up my mom was sidelined frequently with bad headaches. She had the most unusual treatment for them. She'd go to the pantry and slice a couple of baking potatoes raw and she'd s put the raw slices on her forehead and around her eyes. Then she'd tie them there with a strip of cloth. It was the weirdest thing to see. But everybody else knew when we we saw her wearing potatoes we'd better be quiet cuz she was sick.

Dad was hardly ever sick but when he caught a bad cold or flu he'd be like a bear. He'd sleep by himself on the couch and drink hot toddies. A Hot toddy was a drink made with whiskey, Scotch or some other hard liquor which was heated on top of the stove then poured into a mug to be drunk as warm as possible. He'd go to sleep after his toddy and wake up for work in the morning. I don't know how he did it but he did and never missed a day. In a few days he was always well again. His hot toddies were successful treatments.

Were there any weird remedies in your home that you'd care to share??
 

My father's remedy when afflicted with a cold, which was approx. two times or more per winter, was always to stuff his narrow pug-nosed nostrils full of Vicks Vapor Rub. I personally could never tolerate it regardless of how often or vehemently he recommended it.
 
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chic said:
When I was growing up my mom was sidelined frequently with bad headaches. She had the most unusual treatment for them. She'd go to the pantry and slice a couple of baking potatoes raw and she'd s put the raw slices on her forehead and around her eyes. Then she'd tie them there with a strip of cloth. It was the weirdest thing to see. But everybody else knew when we we saw her wearing potatoes we'd better be quiet cuz she was sick.

Dad was hardly ever sick but when he caught a bad cold or flu he'd be like a bear. He'd sleep by himself on the couch and drink hot toddies. A Hot toddy was a drink made with whiskey, Scotch or some other hard liquor which was heated on top of the stove then poured into a mug to be drunk as warm as possible. He'd go to sleep after his toddy and wake up for work in the morning. I don't know how he did it but he did and never missed a day. In a few days he was always well again. His hot toddies were successful treatments.

Were there any weird remedies in your home that you'd care to share??
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My parents both used Gin & Tonic daily to ward off illness and the demons.
 
caramel said:
Stomach ailments were cured with 7up and soda crackers.
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When I was 18 I got food poisoning so badly I was throwing up the lining of my stomach! Thank God for the house calls doctors used to make. My doctor said to take a sip of cold water. Just enough to wet the inside of my mouth. It worked so well I've used it ever since. But that was a doctor's remedy not a family one. I never hear of it anymore though.:unsure:
 
Old remedies my mother swore by:

Tepid Ginger Ale and salty pretzels for nausea. Also Coca Cola syrup or unset Jello.

A few drops of paregoric in water for stomach aches.

Hot toddies (whiskey, lemon, honey and hot water) will heal the sick and raise the dead. The adult dead, that is.

Vicks Vaporub for just about everything. Put in a pan of very hot water, breathe in the fumes with a towel over your head to concentrate it would break up croup. Vaporub on your chest with a hot flannel laid on your chest.

Mustard plasters for chest congestion.

Steam. She spent a lot of nights sitting on the side of the bathtub with a croupy baby in her arms while the hot water ran.

In the real old days, the remedy for bad chest congestion was to fry up a bunch of sliced onions, wrap them in a piece of cheesecloth and lay it on the chest. Probably a combination of the heat and the fumes helped.

My grandpa swore that if you stepped on a rusty nail, you were supposed to soak your foot in a bucket of kerosene for an hour. That's what he did on several occasions. My parents still stuck with the tetanus shot.
 
Whenever we had a fever, Gramma had us sit in Gramps's recliner and put our bare feet up. She'd cut a cold tomato in half and squish each half onto the toes of each of our feet, and we'd sit like that for 10 or 15 minutes, I'd say.

Never failed to bring down a fever.

Bug bites, scratches, scrapes, warts, and pimples were treated with some Witch Hazel on a big cotton ball.

Gramma put a layer of mud on our bee stings and made us sit on the porch til the mud dried. The thing we hated most about being stung by a bee was having to take a bath to wash off the mud.

Mom made a hand-sign to ward off curses. Like when she took me shopping with her one day when I was about 6, and she saw a lady giving her the evil eye from across a bargain bin of boys dress shirts at the White Front. Mom made the mano fico; she stuck her thumb between her index and middle fingers and made a fist. Then she acted all nonchalant, casually looking through the shirts while making sure the evil-eye lady saw the mano fico.

That lady suddenly got a real surprised look on her face, and turned and quickly walked away. So I assume she was Italian.
 
jujube said:
Old remedies my mother swore by:

Tepid Ginger Ale and salty pretzels for nausea. Also Coca Cola syrup or unset Jello.

A few drops of paregoric in water for stomach aches.

Hot toddies (whiskey, lemon, honey and hot water) will heal the sick and raise the dead. The adult dead, that is.

Vicks Vaporub for just about everything. Put in a pan of very hot water, breathe in the fumes with a towel over your head to concentrate it would break up croup. Vaporub on your chest with a hot flannel laid on your chest.

Mustard plasters for chest congestion.

Steam. She spent a lot of nights sitting on the side of the bathtub with a croupy baby in her arms while the hot water ran.

In the real old days, the remedy for bad chest congestion was to fry up a bunch of sliced onions, wrap them in a piece of cheesecloth and lay it on the chest. Probably a combination of the heat and the fumes helped.

My grandpa swore that if you stepped on a rusty nail, you were supposed to soak your foot in a bucket of kerosene for an hour. That's what he did on several occasions. My parents still stuck with the tetanus shot.
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Oh yes. Paregoric for diarrhea. Horrible stuff!
 
When bees sting me they die. Once I went to a sorority garden party as a teen and felt something on my back. When I got home and took my dress off a dead bee fell onto the bed. And I was stung in the toe picnicing and same thing. I felt a sting on my toe and a dead bee flopped off when I got up. I'm delicious but deadly.
 
Murrmurr said:
Whenever we had a fever, Gramma had us sit in Gramps's recliner and put our bare feet up. She'd cut a cold tomato in half and squish each half onto the toes of each of our feet, and we'd sit like that for 10 or 15 minutes, I'd say.

Never failed to bring down a fever.

Bug bites, scratches, scrapes, warts, and pimples were treated with some Witch Hazel on a big cotton ball.

Gramma put a layer of mud on our bee stings and made us sit on the porch til the mud dried. The thing we hated most about being stung by a bee was having to take a bath to wash off the mud.

Mom made a hand-sign to ward off curses. Like when she took me shopping with her one day when I was about 6, and she saw a lady giving her the evil eye from across a bargain bin of boys dress shirts at the White Front. Mom made the mano fico; she stuck her thumb between her index and middle fingers and made a fist. Then she acted all nonchalant, casually looking through the shirts while making sure the evil-eye lady saw the mano fico.

That lady suddenly got a real surprised look on her face, and turned and quickly walked away. So I assume she was Italian.
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Are you Italian? I wouldn't have guessed. Some gave you the malocchio. That's what they call the evil eye. It's a thing Italians believe in.
 
chic said:
Are you Italian? I wouldn't have guessed. Some gave you the malocchio. That's what they call the evil eye. It's a thing Italians believe in.
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Yeah, that's right; malocchio. Are you Italian?

My mom was mostly Italian...an Italian Jew. My dad met her in Italy while he was in the military. He's mostly Irish.

When I owned a liquor/convenience store years ago, new customers often mistook me for Arab. But I used to get out in the sun a lot. Not so much these days, so I don't get nearly as tan as I used to.

What nationality would you have guessed I am?
 
We would put some Bleach in the bathtub to help kill off Chiggers/Redbugs and Ticks. We picked off thousands of ticks over the years as kids.

Raw Potatoes over the eyes was for burned eyes from Arc Flash while welding.

Kerosene was used for cuts on the farm. And Iodine.
 

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