Mama’s Medicines and Daddy’s Ice Cream

Beside Mama’s hug that always made you feel better, she also had some “doctoring” stuff. She would address almost any problem that might come.

First was her ounce of prevention administered every morning.

A spoonful of castor oil, a slick, smelly, awful potion…that absolutely would not go down and stay down without the juice of a half of orange.

The orange juice had to follow quickly as a measure to hold off an immediate return of the castor oil. I never knew what the castor oil prevented but I would have been willing to face whatever evil might come without it.

Second was soap and water. Mama figured that whatever problem you have could be improved by a good old fashioned scrubbing. Mama used her homemade lye soap and no germ known to man could stand against that.

Third, baking soda moistened with a few drops of water stirred into a paste was for addressing ant bites, skeeter bites and stings. If the soda mix dried out, and fell off while the bite was still hurting, (it always did) Mama would apply another coat of baking soda.

Mama used rubbing alcohol, salt, iodine and monkey blood.

Sometimes she used steam and Vicks. Her bandages were legendary!

She saved all old sheets, tore them into strips and ironed them to make them sterile, or at least sanitary in her view.

That is the story of how Mama doctored our afflictions. We three girls lived to adulthood anyway and we still laugh about it.

In times when no one had money for a doctor, our Daddy trusted our druggist for advice. Meds for pink eye, ringworm and the itch came for a price at the drugstore. My dad personally believed that ice cream could cure about anything and ice cream was at the drugstore too.