"Hot tea, lozenges and stuff to dry me up," I told her.
"Wrap your left sock around it." She told me. I wasn't sure I had heard her correctly so I asked her to repeat herself. "My grandmother always told me to take off my left sock and wrap it around my neck when it hurt. I don't know that it did anything, but it couldn't hurt."
I wasn't wearing socks at the time, so I got an old pair out of the laundry. After staring at them for a minute or two, I decided that I couldn't tell right from left and put them both on my neck. Which is the point at which my eldest daughter walked through the door and looked at me as if I had lost my mind.
"My throat hurts," I lamely explained. She rolled her eyes and walked away.
It got me thinking of all the crazy things our grandparents have tried to get me to do in the name of health.
- There was the jar of rancid rabbit fat under the kitchen sink. I was supposed to smear it liberally on cuts and burns.
- Not to be outdone, the other side of the family had a jar of goose fat for the same purpose.
- When I was 6 and got a black eye, my grandfather examined it, got up from the table and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a fresh cow patty for me to put on my swollen lids. (Mom wouldn't let him. Bless her.)
- There was a chunk of aloe vera to eat for dry skin. (It works wonders on wrinkles!)
- Have a headache? Split a pinto bean in half and put one piece on each of your temples
- Sore throats called for left socks and onion tea with a heaping teaspoon of sugar in it.
- There was a jar of moonshine with rock candy in it for when we were "feeling poorly."
- One grandmother ate Vick's vaporub every morning to ward off sinus infections and tried to get us to try it, too.
7 comments:
Love it! My grandmas swear by whiskey for every ailment. I told them that I did not abstain from alcohol for 9 months of my pregnancy only to put it directly in my baby's mouth for teething. They just shrugged like I was an idiot or something...maybe too much whiskey in my childhood!
This is a great post! One time when I was staying at my grandparents I fell and bruised my shin real bad. It swelled up instantly. Grandma took a silver knife, the one she used for frosting cakes, and held it to the swelling. It was weird sitting there with a knife on my leg but it did help take down the swelling. I think ice would have worked better but I never argued with Grandma!
SH, SW, SD funny how that's kind of the same thing they do with fighters in the ring now when they get a big bump. The trainers hold a cold metal soap bar looking-thing against the injury and it brings the swelling down faster. Grandmothers sometimes know what they're talking about.
Sounds like you may have what I had, so I will tell you what they told me in case it helps (nothing too crazy here): mix children's liquid benadryl and liquid antacid like mylanta and gargle it. It will coat and numb and really helps. Of course the old gargle with warm salt water, which kills bacteria. Pectin losenges (halls fruit breezers. claritin and mucinex. sleeping with a humidifier. the warm liquids. and what helped the most-tylenol. the nurse told me-pain is pain. And it hurt. One night I cried and asked if people go to the ER for sore throats. Hope you are feeling better soon!
Roaring out loud. I had forgotten the goose fat and cow patty cures.
Sore throat, cough, or can't sleep cure: a little bit of honey or sugar, 1 or 2 crushed aspirins, a little lemon juice, and a swig of whiskey mixed together. Drink it. Growing up we were given variations of this. (This was before people knew about Reyes Syndrome.)
Yes, I would have rubbed whiskey or rum on my children's gums.
PS - Hope you are feeling better by now.
Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa (ninjiom-hk.cwahi.net) may be another solution to sore throat. i know a lot of people use it, its also non alcoholic, though it's effectiveness is not as good as alcohol based cough medicine, but it's still good to use on not so serious sore throat. Hope you are getting well soon!!!
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