Blinky the Shark wrote:
> I feel like shit. I may have about ten minutes, here, before I have to go
> back to bed. Can't sleep, but don't have the energy to do anything else,
> either -- not even read. (And that just kills me.) So I've been flashing
> back to little home remedies from growing up in the 1950s...
>
> I think sometimes Mom would give me small amounts of what I remember as a
> weak solution of sugar in water. Ever heard of that?
>
> Burnt Toast: I distinctly remember Mom burning a slice of toast and
> scraping the ashes into a glass of water. I guess this was to settle a
> stomach (the charcoal or whateveer) -- probably more from acid upset than
> from feeling urpy.
>
> Liquid Jell-O. I guess that was a variant on sugar water; it's not like
> there was sugar-free Jell-0 in 1953.
>
>

My maternal grandmother and my mom would make lemon, honey and whiskey
for a chest cold. They were also big on Vicks. Like having a chest
cold wasn't bad enough, you had to get smeared with stinky, burning cold
grease, and if you didn't watch out they'd swipe a fingerful of the
stuff under your nose for good measure.

My paternal grandfather would give you a aspirin and little glass of
creme de menthe for a sore throat.

My dad's remedies tended to be pretty freakin brutal. If you complained
about a sore throat where he could hear you he'd swab your tonsils with
merthiolate. It worked, too, in a way. By the time it stopped burning
your throat would be pretty much numb. And he treated his migraines by
inserting Dristan-soaked q-tips so far up his nose it's a wonder he
didn't poke his eyes out from underneath.

As for me, when the kids have nausea and vomiting I give them the heavy
syrup from canned peaches to sip. Also popsicles And small amounts of
cantelope - I don't know why that stays down but it usually does.

The other first aid measure for the stomach flu is to keep their father
away from them because he'll try to insist that they eat and drink to
keep their strength up. Explaining that every time you vomit you not
only lose what you ate or drank, you also lose additional fluid doesn't
seem to sink in.

I think that one came from his mother, who believed as gospel everything
in the "Big Book of Old Wives Tales, Urban Legends and Chowder Headed
Notions" (the unabridged edition). You should have seen the fit she
threw when my SIL took her baby daughter for her first haircut when the
moon was waning. Oh. My. God. Because of her mother's willful
ignorance that child was doomed, DOOMED, I tell you, to have a bad hair
life.