COUNTRY REMEDIES
by Jean Steel Venrick, wife of The Wordwright

In the olden days people rarely went to the doctor or hospital except for something quite serious that they could not handle. Illness at our house was rather infrequent, but occasionally a tummy ache or cold occurred. I was never very good at accepting or being around sick people.

When I was a little girl past four years old, it was summertime and Mother was pregnant with my brother. She had morning sickness, vomiting often. One time she asked me to get the washpan for her. Instead, I ran out the door, around to the side of the house and held my ears so I couldn't hear her throw up. After a few months and 19 times vomiting (she counted) she was over the hump. On March 20, 1937, John Robert Steel was born at home on a Saturday night, with Dr. M. E. Nichols and his brother-in-law in attendance. We had no phone, so Daddy had to drive to a neighbor's house over the hill to summon the doctor. Grandma Combs (mother's mother) then came to spend the ten days after the baby arrived as a new mother was not allowed out of bed for that length of time.

In my growing up years at home, 1932-1951, not one of our family was ever in the hospital.

A couple accidents I remember sent someone to the doctor's office though. Mother had a piece of metal removed from her face after she helped my dad when he worked on one of his many projects--such as building a tractor, making a pick-up truck or reviving an old 1934 Chevy. A small fragment of metal flew from what he was hammering, struck her near her mouth, lodging in her cheek.

Another time, my dad thought he would be economical and move a cedar tree that was growing near the woods, to our front yard. It was in the cold of winter, a good time to move it, so he thought, but the poison ivy growing around it wasn't dead, just dormant. Being very allergic to the plant, he received a bad case of the itch, especially on his face. Cost him $8.00 to get rid of it because he had to go to the doctor for medicine. That was probably enough money to have bought two trees.

One time I must have had a bad case of the flu or an upset stomach because they called Dr. Nichols who came to our house, sat me up in bed, and started giving me spoon after spoon, of some kind of pink medicine. I cried and threw up, then I cried and threw up some more. He was finally satisfied I had retained enough of the yucky stuff to make me feel better. I would say I must have been about five years old at the time. I was never a good medicine-taker, always putting off by saying, "Give me a chance, give me a chance!"

We took Pepto Bismol for upset stomach and on rare occasions Mother got down the old bottle of whiskey, set high on the shelf in the cabinet, and used only for medicinal purposes. To a little whiskey was added warm water and sugar to settle your stomach. Didn't taste bad at all.

For a laxative, Pepsin was the order of the day, or maybe Ex-Lax. Later, Carter's Little Liver Pills--better known as "Carter's Little Starters", did the trick.

For earache we used warmed Sweet Oil with cotton in your ear to keep out the cold and air. Sweet oil is simply olive oil, I've since learned. For a toothache, Oil of Cloves, which came in a waxed coated stick which you cut off, was stuffed in the cavity of your tooth. We probably had aspirin in the medicine cabinet but I don't remember taking them, possibly the adults did.

For small cuts you used Mercurochrome, not Merthiolate because it burned too much! Alcohol or soap and water was used for disinfecting, then Cloverine Salve or Vaseline was applied and wrapped with a clean piece of cloth since Band-Aids weren't available. We used Arnica for mosquito bites.

When the cold season came on with sore throats and runny noses we resorted to the Vicks remedy. Rub your neck with Vicks, wrap a rag around your neck fastening it with a safety pin. Then go to bed and let it burn. Oh, how I hated for Mother to want to put a touch of Vicks on my nose. I fought that and took my chances with suffering rather than having a burning nose.

If you had bad congestion in your chest, I remember having a mustard plaster applied to my chest. This was not used except in severe cases. Dry mustard, flour and a little water mixed together to make a paste, was put on a cloth and applied to the chest but only for a few minutes as it could cause severe burns. If I recall, the paste was not applied directly to the chest either, but did it's work through the cloth. Smith Brothers’ black cough drops or Luden's rounded out our medical supplies. We didn't have tissues to blow our noses in so I had to carry two or three hankies with me to school. No antibiotics were available so you let nature take its course on the ailments.

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COUNTRY REMEDIES is taken from Jean’s book, "Recollections of the Past. 1932-1951." Copyrighted 1996