This time of year the weather changes and many people begin to complain of cold and sniffles. The children are in school and bring home germs that their parents and younger siblings catch from them. Some people put up with it for a time, trying over-the -counter remedies while others rush off to the local doctor's office.
When I was growing up, a doctor was not called unless
it was absolutely necessary and at that time many local doctors, at least in rural areas, still made house calls. Although I suppose that is a thing of the past, it seems at least that it kept contagious illnesses from being passed around through crowded doctor's offices.
In our family, Momma always tried her home remedies first and if that didn't work then the doctor was called. Many people used home remedies and various "cures" that were passed down from previous generations.
I learned early on not to complain too much or I was in for some of Momma's home remedies. However, Mommas have a way of knowing if you are sick even if you don't say anything about it.
Momma had many home remedies including the well known, chicken broth but the home remedy that I remember most was the one Momma used for a cold, sore throat, or congestion. It was called "a greasing."
At the first sign of a cold Momma would call to us at bedtime saying, "Before you go to bed, come on in here
by the stove first and let me give you a greasing"
A greasing meant that Momma was going to get out "the cloth". The cloth was kept in a drawer where it was placed after Momma washed it after the last time we got "a greasing." It was just a piece of thick flannel nightgown or flannel sheet. It was cut to fit on the chest from shoulder to shoulder and extend down to about the waist.
After she got out "the cloth," the greasing began. Momma would get out that familiar pretty blue bottle of Vicks Vaporub and smear that smelly stuff all over our throats and chests. After we were properly greased, she would hold the cloth up to the heating stove for a few moments to allow it to get good and hot. When it was just the right temperature, Momma fastened it around our necks with safety pins. The cloth did feel very warm and comforting. In my mind I can still feel the warmth of that old stove and hear the soft popping and clicking sounds it made as I stood there basking in it's warmth while Momma rubbed me down with Vick's VapoRub. We would put our warm flannel pajamas on over the warm cloth and then we were tucked into bed with lots of cozy blankets. The pungent fumes from the Vicks VaporRub did help to open up our stuffy noses but whether or not it worked, we sure felt like we had
been "doctored up" good.
The next morning Momma would insist that the Vicks VapoRub be washed off completely because we couldn't go outside with it all over us. Vicks VapoRub was a strong menthol-like salve and it felt cool when the air hit it. Momma probably thought it would make us sick if we left it on but for some reason I got the idea that I would surely freeze to death if I didn't wash it off and the coroner's report would read
"Cause of Death: Vicks VapoRub".
Sometimes if one of us had really bad congestion, Momma worried that we might get pneumonia so she would put a blob of Vicks VapoRub in a pot of hot water
and we had to lean over the pan with a towel on our heads and breathe the fumes. Thus, the first redneck
vaporizer came to be.
Momma often told about the time that my brother got into the Vicks VapoRub when he was just a toddler. The pretty blue jar was just so attractive to him and somehow he managed to get the jar opened. Momma found him sitting on the floor with most of the Vicks VapoRub smeared all over himself. He was taking deep breaths that sounded like Darth Vadar with a terrible cold. He was breathing with his mouth wide open because the strong fumes were taking his breath away. Momma quickly bathed him and he was none the worse for the experience but Momma was more careful not to leave the Vicks VapoRub where he could get to it after that.
We thought that Vicks VapoRub smelled powerfully strong but we got used to it. Momma often told us how fortunate we were to have a medicine that smelled so good because as a child she had to wear something called an asafetida bag that was worn like a necklace around the neck. Momma said asafetida was some kind of plant resin that smelled something like a skunk and was sometimes mixed with sulfur, garlic, pine tar, camphor, and no telling what else. She said that children wore this bag at night while they slept and some children were even sent to school with the asafetida bag dangling from around their necks. It was thought that this would keep children from catching diseases. It was probably true because no self-respecting germ would want to go near them. According to Momma, it would be difficult to catch anything at all since there wasn't a soul who wanted to be downwind from a person wearing the odorous asafetida bag.
After I had children of my own, Momma gave them "a greasing" too if they happened to be at her house when a bad cold struck. I guess these home remedies do get passed down because I used Vicks VapoRub on my children too and they are all still living. I don't know if it was the Vicks Vapo Rub, the chicken broth, the warm cloth, or the extra love and attention that made us feel better but recover we did!
My children would be the first to tell you to "watch out for Momma" because there is still a pretty blue bottle of Vicks VapoRub in my medicine cabinet and "the cloth" is still around here somewhere.
"There are some remedies worse that the disease"
Publilius Syrus
By Pamela Perry Blaine
October 2005
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