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Between Friends with BobAnn Breland

There’s no denying that the hot days of summer are on the horizon. Hot as blazes, especially during July and August — but as children we didn’t give the heat too much attention. Air conditioners were a thing of the future. I am talking a long time ago!

Summer time was a fun adventure for my siblings and me. Mama chased us out to play under a shade tree. It was about the coolest place you could find. Not only good for playing, but it was a good place for adults to shell peas or other vegetables as it was cooler there than inside the house.

“Barefoot as yard dogs,” correctly described us. With as few clothes as possible, we became very brown in the hot sunshine. Running around barefoot had its dangers and chances for cutting a foot on a piece of glass or sticking a nail in a foot, were pretty good at least once during those care-free days when we roamed everywhere. In today’s world, a child with a cut foot would be carried to the emergency room for treatment and stitches, and rightly so.

There were no emergency rooms that I remember. Way before she became a nurse, Mama treated us by getting some kerosene and poured it on the open wound, then tied it up bandage-style with a clean piece of white cloth. After getting our share of attention for the accident, off we would go, back to our play. Before the day was over, the bandage would be as black as the dirt we had hopped on all day. At night we soaked it in a pan of warm water before bed. Infection? It was practically unheard of.

That was pretty much what everybody did. Kerosene, vinegar and turpentine were pretty handy items to have around the house. If we had boils, which were pretty usual for kids roaming around barefoot in hot weather, there was a tube of black salve that worked wonders. I think you can still buy it!

Thinking about those old days, I looked in an old “Foxfire” book to see some homemade remedies people used to use. These remedies were from the mountains, but you’d be surprised how many made it farther south. Some make sense, but others are so funny. Most were used before my day, mind you!

Since headaches are the bane of my life, I first looked at those old remedies. I have had migraines in the past so painful I would have gladly tried either of them!

Headache: Soak strips of brown paper in warm vinegar. Bind them onto the forehead with a white cloth or bind warm fried potatoes to the forehead with a rag. You take something for the stomach, like a warm dose of Epsom salt. You take a teaspoonful to a half glass of water. Stir it up real good and drink it down. That cures the headache.

For cough: Heat together two tablespoons kerosene oil, one tablespoon turpentine, and one tablespoon camphor and one cup pure lard. Rub the salve on the temples and the upper lip for head colds and on the Adam’s apple and chest for coughs and chest colds. Cover on the chest with a flannel cloth. (We used Vick’s Salve. Similar formula?)

Corns: Tie five little flint rocks up in a rag. Throw them away at the forks of a road. When somebody picks up the rag to see what’s in it, your corns will go away and they will get them.

Earache: Blow smoke from rabbit tobacco in the ear.

Nosebleed: Pull the hair on top of the head straight up until the bleeding stops.

Pimples: Try rubbing your face with a wet baby diaper. Works every time if you can stand the smell!

Snakebite: Put the entrails of a freshly killed chicken on the affected area.

Doesn’t this make us thankful for a modern drug store with dozens of shelves filled with modern remedies? And hospital emergency rooms?

Oops!  I forgot one important one.

Stings: Put tobacco or snuff on a sting.

As kids, when we were stung by a wasp or yellow jacket, we headed straight for our grandpa, who chewed tobacco.

Trust me, it worked every time!