By: W.C. Reader

We have been watching a commercial flashing across the TV screen in recent weeks, and it shows a worried mother standing before a window, anxiously awaiting a doctor’s arrival to treat a sick child. That scene was to remind us of the period when doctors made house calls to threat their patients and it predates modern times when we transport the injured and the ill to hospitals, clinics, and medical centers, where they can benefit from the most modern advances that have been made in medical facilities and equipment.

But there still are a few of us around who started our journey through life without the benefit of doctors making house calls, much less the modern day medical facilities which are available to us today. For instance, when we were born, it took place in a two-room farmhouse, and the only person in attendance in the beginning was a good neighbor woman who came over from the adjoining farm. Finally, a doctor (Dr. Nave, we believe) came plodding down the muddy road and arrived just in time to bring us into the world, yelling and screaming. And that scene is similar to the manner in which many of your grandparents arrived in this world.

Now that we have suggested how many babies started their lives, what happened to them in their formative years when accidents and childhood diseases came along? Out in the rural areas, and especially in wintertime, few children escaped being stricken with some kind of sickness, and in that respect, let us refresh your memory on some of them. Leading the list was the common cold, followed by the likes of measles, mumps, chicken pox, and whooping cough. Add to the list sore throats, earaches, diphtheria, scarlet fever, malaria, insect bites, and many more. But you get the idea. Keeping in mind that this preceded the advent of doctors and hospitals; both of whom were hardly available, especially in the rural areas, what and who did we turn to when illness struck home in the old days? Well, who else but Mama? It was she who came up with a home remedy for just about every illness but the major ones. Here are a few of them for you to study, and then you turn to Granny and let her add to the list. 1. Put vinegar on cloth and apply to forehead to stop fever. 2. Dab Bluing on ant bite to stop pain. 3. Put a few drops of kerosene on a spoon of sugar and take it to relieve coughing. 4. To open stopped-up nose, heat a pan of water, put Vicks salve in it, and let patient breathe the fumes. 5. Use kerosene to disinfect cuts and scratches. 6. Take chicken broth for upset stomach. 7. Put sulphur and lard on flannel cloth, heat it, and apply to chest when patient has chest cold or influenza. 8. Put a drop or two of urine in ear to cure earache. 9. Take warm cloth, put vinegar on it, and wrap around neck to treat sore throat. 10. And after a long winter, our mother believed that our sister and we “needed to be cleaned out” so out came the castor oil.

Now folks, we are not recommending any of these home remedies. We are just reporting what some people used to do when they didn’t have doctors and medicine. If you become ill now, go consult your medical doctor!

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