Ok...the "Chiggers" and "Black Drawing Salve" threads got me to thinking about how "medical emergencies" were handled when I was a kid...I'm 65 now and sometimes I'm surprised I survived ...

These were the go to "medications" in common use by my grandmother when I was a kid...

Vicks VapoRub...a wide array of practical uses, ranging to applying around the belt line, ankles, and (very carefully) in the "sensitive" locations near, well you know, for the treatment of the chiggers or "red bugs" we outdoor feral children came in contact with daily...it would also be used to combat chest congestion from a cold, by being liberally applied to a piece of cloth which was safety pinned to your tee shirt across your chest. This was known as a "greasy jacket"...it seemed to work...

Mercurochrome...this was always on hand to be used when you stepped on a piece of glass, scratched the chigger bites until they started bleeding or just for general scratches, cuts and such. I do remember it being used on other kids to swab their sore throats (yes, it contained mercury)...

The sewing needle and tweezers...splinters/thorns (EVERYTHING back then was a source of splinters) and by God you best not squirm when the needle digging started...this was always followed up by a liberal douching of Mercurochrome and the warning to stop doing whatever it was that you were doing that caused you to get the splinter in the first place...

The snuff/grandmother/oldlady spit poultice...wasp or bee stings...there is not anything worse than being stung by a wasp and then having to endure the snuff/spit poultice (it could be my grandmother, the neighbor or a perfect stranger), all that was required was the dipping of snuff (usually Dental Sweet) and having the ability to produce spit to make a paste...it was nasty to say the least...

But last but not least...the most feared "remedy" of them all...

Phillips Milk Of Magnesia...
No matter what..head ache, fatigued from playing, sunburn, it didn't seem to matter. THE question that struck fear to my core..."when was the last time you went to the bathroom?" (and it didn't mean "pee")...any answer that was hesitant or "an hour ago" ("no wonder you are covered up in chigger bites...you're constipated or they wouldn't bite you so much") a visit with the blue bottle of doom filled with the thick white liquid of gag...you could watch the thick chalky, evil tasting liquid pour into the spoon, first one, to be followed by another and usually another (depending on how "bound up" you were) and each one was swallowed/gagged down ...knowing full well what would come a few hours later.

Like I said...it's a wonder my generation survived...

But it does make it clear why we played away from home from morning till dark and avoided as much contact with adults (except to eat, usually on the run) as much as we could

Castor oil.

Some nasty "home made" cough medicine. It looked and had the consistency of Corn Huskers and tasted like it was onion and sugar.

Methiolade, for cuts and scrapes. Peroxide in the ears.

Paregoric.
Mustard Plaster.
Mineral Oil.

Mom's side of the family's the cure-all for anything on your skin was Calamine lotion. Thankfully, they stopped using it on sunburns before I was born.

I still use a slightly modified version of Mom's side of the family's upper respiratory cure all which was hot tea, lemon, honey, and seagram's 7. I use the same recipe just better individual ingredients (e.g. Crown Royal and local honey).

Mom's podiatrist used Betadine on her once, and it became Mom's cure-all for any cut or open wound. It didn't take long to realize that I'm allergic to it.

Most of that plus sweet oil for ear aches

Castoria every other week to keep us regular.
You would just the other end doing solids and then that crap again.

quote:

Originally posted by Bisleyblackhawk:
Vicks VapoRub...a wide array of practical uses...

My grandmother, who lived to age 93, would eat Vicks. A little cold or congestion, she'd swallow some Vicks.

Oh boy, is this thread bringing back memories(I didn't say good memories!). I can relate to all of the above......my family owned a drug store, so all of those meds were readily available to my mom!!

Milk of magnesia, used to cure/prevent everything from grumpiness to leprosy.

Mercurochrome, too, for skin breakages. I turned out to be allergic to tetanus anti toxin, whatever they call it!

Scott's Emulsion . It contained Cod Liver Oil and God knows what else . Thick and NASTY tasting .
Vics Vapor Rub on my chest when I had a cold .

My grandmother and mom would smother any sprain, bruise muscle or flesh pain (not for open wounds) with a medicinal smelling “mud” poltice called “numotizine”. It would be heated, caked on and wrapped with a bandage. I think it could be purchased at the drugstore. No longer. Can’t find. I didn’t like the smell.

Only place I could find it on the net was at a veterinarian supply store. Apparrently good for horses too.

Makes sense. My grandma was a pioneer woman whose parents got their farm during the oklahoma land rush.

Surprised I didn’t grow hooves.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Scott's Emulsion . It contained Cod Liver Oil and God knows what else . Thick and NASTY tasting .
Vics Vapor Rub on my chest when I had a cold .

Yes, we had to take the Scott's Emulsion too. Really gross stuff.

Vicks, castor oil as a very young child, some useless spray for scrapes and cuts that didn't do a damned thing, and the very best stuff in the world for splinters and infection, Griswold's Salve.

I still have some. It's made of oleate of lead. Really. Lead, embedded in rosin. You heat it up with a match until it boils, wipe some of the boiling goo on a bandaid, and then put it on the splinter / wound while still hot. It would draw stuff right out of you. If you had an infected cut, the next day the Griswold's would have pulled all the dead tissue and pus out. If you had a splinter, it would draw it.

Most amazing thing it ever did for me was remove a bunch of splintered glass from my finger tip. I was a curious child, and I touched the center of a huge spider crack in a large window, driving a dozen or more tiny, clear glass splinters straight into my finger tip. My father tried the magnifying glass and knife trick to remove them, but because they were clear, and went in vertically, he couldn't find them. On went the Griswold's and off to bed. The next morning, I removed the bandaid, and there was an entire glass flower of spikes standing straight up on the used plaster. It drew every one of them.

I still have some floating around here somewhere. Can't buy the stuff any more, damnit.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Vics Vapor Rub on my chest when I had a cold .

My mother would put the rub on my chest, warm a tshirt over the gas flame on the stovetop and then lay the warm shirt on my chest. It was actually nice.

I don't recall any backwoods remedies, really, but my father was a hospital chaplain and has Dr. friends.

Campho-Phenique was the standard treatment for cuts and scrapes. I never could tell if it did any good at pain/itch relief.

Coke was always the first thing other than water we were given when suffering from an upset stomach. Saltines were always the first solid food.

Pepto Bismol was the standard for an upset stomach.

I once did try fingernail polish on chigger bites, based on the wives tale that they burrow under your skin and you can suffocate them.

Castor oil. It's been decades, but I still remember the taste of that stuff.

You haven't lived if you haven't had a mustard plater. I'm surprised the skin on my chest isn't scar tissue from the burns.

Blackberry brandy (gack!). It didn't make you get well sooner. It made you deny any illness at all.

Not so much "home" remedies, but still....

Oil of cloves for a toothache.

Styptic pencil and a piece of TP to stem the blood from cuts incurred while learning to shave with a double edged razor.

Terpin Hydrate and codeine for a cough.

Bag Balm for whatever needed soothing.

Aloe Vera for sunburn.

Fels Naptha bar soap for poison ivy itch.



And yes, drawing salve (which was a God send in my youth), Vicks (whose formula changed in recent years and now is but a shadow of its former self), and many others cited in earlier posts.

I remember;

1. Castoria
2. Vicks, on the chest, under the nose
3. Warm whiskey/water

My Mom was not into home remedies, but she was always putting Campho-Phenique on every scratch and cut I had. Think FIRE.
I think she derived some evil thrill from it! Maybe I deserved it....