flitterbit wrote:

> Blinky the Shark wrote:
>
>> flitterbit wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Sorry you're feeling poorly; is it some kind of flu? I had a bout of
>>> that
>>> at Christmas and spent Christmas Day in bed with a fever of 102 -- such
>>> fun!
>>>
>>> When we were little, for nausea, Mom used to give us flat gingerale, and
>>> if that stayed put, a half orange to suck on. The flat gingerale may
>>> very
>>> well be an analogue of your mom's sugar water remedy. For chest colds,
>>> Vicks Vaporub on the back and chest.
>>
>>
>> God, how I hated Vicks. Felt awful, and that tee shirt all gooey with it
>> and stuck to my chest and back made it ten times as awful.
>>
>>
> I liked it because it seemed to make it easier to breathe; I wasn't fond
> of being stuck to a t-shirt either, but I suspect a lot of what it
> offered was simply the feeling of being cared for.

The other thing my mother was fond of was potassium iodide for chest
colds. 20 drops in a glass of water. It was supposed to help you cough
up the crud but dear god it was vile. Once I got my psycho cat (2nd
grade, I think), I never actually swallowed a dose of that crap, I just
poured it out carefully into the cat's litter box - it was my
responsibility to keep it clean, sick or well. And I always got well
anyhow.

Good thing, too. My sister had no such recourse or at least it never
occurred to her and her doctor blames her current thyroid issues on our
mother's favorite remedy. I never shared this particular tactic with
her because the first thing she would have done would have been to rat
me out for spite. Being a shit has its consequences...