Mother had an extensive medical cabinet filled with stuff which was used on a regular basis...there was Friars Balsam to be added to hot water in a bowl...towel over head and deep breaths for colds and coughs.
Vick, in the largest size available, to be rubbed liberally all over chests and backs until you reeked to high heaven and your eyes watered...thick winter vest on top, then flannel pyjamas and your cold was expected to have gone by the following morning...
A large bottle of generic aspirin tablets for everything from measles to an earache...children don't get headaches apparently...according to Mother.
Germolene in a little flat tin, for spots and grazes...that stank as well and it was so greasy it sort of slid off your knee if she'd put it on a graze...
Witch hazel, which smelt delicious, but was saved for summer time and heat rashes...and soaked into cotton wool for Mother to lay on her forehead when she had headaches...she was allowed to have them being a grown-up, along with two aspirin and a cup of Earl Grey tea...
There was Snowfire ointment for the chilblains we all suffered from throughout the winter...not sure whether it ever did any good...I know the chilblains used to itch terribly once your feet warmed up a bit...
A large bottle of Calamine lotion which was used liberally when we were sunburned...the screw- top used to get sort of grungy and horrible...and a bottle of TCP for anything else.
We didn't have bowels of course...so Mother never kept any laxatives...Granny did though. Senokot tablets I think...Granny talked about bowels and wee...but I don't think Mother ever went to the toilet...I'm pretty certain she never had sex either...or periods.
Granny kept packets of Dr Whites sanitary towels and those pink belts in her bathroom in case any of us 'came on' when we were staying for holidays...
Mother had a roll of cottonwool for administering all the lotions and creams and a bottle of Oprex with a blue glass eye bath...
And a roll of sticking plaster that was cut according to the size of whatever you needed to be covered.
Granny made us, and by us, I mean my cousins and me...hot lemon with honey and a dash of whisky if we were sniffling...a cuddle for a headache and a magic kiss for a grazed knee or elbow...there were Dock leaves for nettle stings and a dab of 'special cream' for insect bites...heaven knows what that was. Might have been the cold cream she used on her face...it worked though whatever it was...
Our medicine cabinet is an old biscuit tin...there might be a few plasters in there...but I know there's dog and cat worming pills and ready filled syringes for Neddy's injections for his chest and a tube of horribly expensive wormer for Neddy and Jack...there might be a little bottle of Tea tree oil...unless that's in my make-up purse...and I think there's some Sudocream, we put that under Neddys eyes to keep the flies away in the summer...his eyes tend to run and that attracts the flies.
The bottle of TCP Himself bought today for my insect bite is on my desk, so I don't forget where I've put it.
The Granny was my English Grandmother who, oddly enough, turned out to have vast amounts of Irish blood which would have irritated my Mother beyond belief...but I'm digressing yet again.
Don't forget that bottle of iodine that turned everything purple, and Dr Collis Browns medicine that used to contain morphine!
It was in the news recently that Nottingam University had made a salve from 1000 yr recipe that contained onion, garlic and part of a cows stomach amongst other things.....it was found to effective against a culture of MRSA... I'll stick with the onion and garlic and forget the rest.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane...I can smell the Germolene now.
Andrews Liver Salts were perfectly foul! I remember having a dose of them the only time I've ever had too much to drink...thought I was about to expire...lol
I didn't know you had been to my childhood home - you described it so well but forgot the 'brown' tub of petroleum jelly so old it went brown but you don't throw things away!
Anyone watching 'the truth about your medicine cabinet' tonight on BBC1. It is part of a series which I have enjoyed.
Take care everyone - we all survived this long eh?
You should write a book love your posts. Just wondering where you live because nurse recommended 20mins sunshine so you can't live in England?! You got me hooked in the garden centre. Thanks x x x
Forgotten all about smelling salts...I liked the little fancy shaped bottle!
And don't forget the dreaded 'Syrup of Pigs' Well it was syrup of figs but we always called it pigs. But worst of all was the Cod Liver Oil. Gross
• in reply to
Cod Liver Oil was disgusting...ought never to have been allowed...lol
That has brought back so many memories. I had an aunt who grew comfry plants in her garden and when anyone had a sprain she would give them some leaves to boil up to soak the ankle or wrist in. And it did work. I used magic cream (germolene) to treat grazes on my children and grandchildren who insisted I was called if they needed some. I was regarded as an expert at getting splinters out of fingers. I loved having a spoonful of cod liver oil and malt every night in the winter time when I was young but not the Parishes Chemical food, an iron tonic, which went on to ruin my teeth. Without the NHS free health care people had to stock up on home remadies. Keep them coming x Joyce
• in reply to
Now Comfrey really does heal sprains and Roman soldiers put the leaves in their sandals to stop their feet from aching when they were on long marches....
Makes you wonder what the ingredients were in Parishes Chemical food...eek!
Our medicine box was a small cupboard set deep in one of our walls and contained much the same as yours did, but I do remember a box of Senna pods that made a kind of tea for constipation.My Dad also made Nettle tea, cooled down for nettle rash bathing,. There was also a botttle of Minadex, a tonic for poor appetites and some sulphur ointment, and a tub of Epsom Salts, sore feet, bathing grazes etc.
I recall finding my mums Dutchcap & borrowed it to keep my best marbles in. .... . come to think of it my brother Billy was born about a year after that
I quite forgot the little bottle of olive oil, bought from the chemist, dripped onto hot cotton wool to relieve earaches. Now we can afford to buy it all the time as part of our everyday diets, then it was like liquid gold!
I quite forgot the little bottle of olive oil, bought from the chemist, dripped onto hot cotton wool to relieve earaches. Now we can afford to buy it all the time as part of our everyday diets, then it was like liquid gold!
My future mother in law recommended I take Sanatogen, not the wine, a horrid tasting drink made from a white powder. that was in the early 1950s. during the war schoolchildren deemed to be in need of extra nourishment, were lined up in the school hall for a dose of codliver oil and malt. My mother gave me Californian Syrup of Figs now and again, and there was a meaty tasting supplement, not bovril or marmite, that was also horrible.
Ready made sanitary towels were a luxury I had to wait for. Pieces of rag folded into bulky protection and pinned on which were soaked and then washed and hung out to dry for all to see - "the flags are out" ! also we made our own toilet paper from old newspapers, cut to size, string through a hole and hung on a nail in the outside loo.
Oh yes, I remember all of those things. My Mum used to use dandelion milk (taken from the stems) to cure warts, no she wasn't a witch, although our surname was Trick. X
Goodness Vashti, Your mums medicine cabinet was exactly the same as my Mums. All the names, so familiar,I can even smell them, We were also given a spoonful of Cod Liver Oil and Malt everyday, Regards Bulpit
tasting supplement, it was Virol. another one was Scotts Emulsion.
I also remember my mother taking doses from a bottle of herbal mixture from the chemist to bring on a miscarriage, and my aunt saying to her - "You will kill yourself, Lydia". I felt scared, hearing that, as a child. iris x
There were some little pills you could take to bring on a miscarriage...trying hard to think of the name but it escapes me...my ex father-in-law who I loved to bits was a chemist and he sold them...in a brown paper bag.
Ah! memories Vashti. I also recall "Lion" ointment which my Father used for everything and "Grasshopper" ointment which was bright green and smelled awful. As I've had my manky lungs all my life, as a child I had regular sessions with Friars Balsam, but I had to inhale it from a china "teapot" looking thing - which had 2 spouts! We were also given a daily dose of Cod liver oil and Malt - lovely. I think you can still buy something similar in the supermarket pharmacy?
I am one of five sisters and our Nanna lived with us, we also have 2 brothers, so that made 10 of us at home, but growing up in the fifties and sixties that was the norm. Me and all my sisters had long thick curly hair, and after our bath on a Sunday night Nanna would go through all our hair with a steel small tooth comb yo see if we had nits. Then when it was that time of the month, out with the Indian Brandy, why it was called that I don't know as there was no alcohol in it. If one of us was a bit chesty as she would say, out came the goose grease, and she would massage it all over your chest. Then right up and till puberty we had to wear a vest then a Liberty bodice on top of the vest. I really don't know how she managed to do it all. Xx
You know, it sounds like we all came from the same family - or are we just all a bit long in the tooth? The bottle of iodine was the horror for me - it got sloshed on to open wounds and was agony. Did anyone else have sulphur and treacle in the Spring, to purefy the blood? It didn't pay to blow off when you'd had some of that - you could clear a room in seconds!
some of your remedy, I saw recommeded on TV in a programme about over the counter medicine. HOney and lemon, still the best.
My mum used xheep candle to put on brown paper heated up over the gas, applied hot and sticky to the chest for coughs.
I'm afraid, I still got bronchiectasis because dad smoked cigars! I got passive smoking. Once i smoked a cigarette, laying a hwole pack on th table after lunch and my newly bought cigarette holder of which I was so proud.
My dad asked me what I was doing. I replied I was going to do like him, smoke a bit after lunch as he did. "Oh no, you won't! If you do, You are NOT my sin anymore. My mum sent me to my bedroom where I sulked for some time, repeting to myself that dad did it so it must be alright. Since things had to be resolved, I came out and gave the whole smoking kit to my dad who put it in the bin.
I never smoked since, apart from the unfortunate passive smoking that my dad was unaware of. Mic
Heaven preserve me from the ------- Castor oil that my mother used to dose me with followed by a slice of orange to remove the gungey horrible after taste. Unbelievable but I recall an enema when I was around 4. Amazing - the preoccupation with bowels when a good diet would have done the trick. Also Venos cough medicine - I loved the taste and drank half a bottle!!!! Inhalations were the norm with TCP - I think. I was a chesty child. xx
I still use Germoline as my magic cream for my grandchildren - if they have a minor bump or dig I totter off and tell them I'm getting my magic cream and as they can't stand the stuff their pain immediately disappears. I used to use Vick under my nose to help trap pollen during hay fever season but now I have oxygen when moving about that's not to practical.
My mum had unusual ideas about illness and said that it was all in the mind and you had to be strong and get over illness by willing it away. I used to think that I was very ill if I was kept at home and given Lucozade to drink (I really thought it was medicine)when I was a kid my hay fever was chronic but I was only allowed 1 hankie a day and was told not to sneeze to much!!!
I was a very small thin child and over the earlier part of my life many potions and tonics were tried to boost my weight nothing worked even having a bottle of Guinness with my evening meal (I was 12 at the time) and it worked I started gaining weight when I was about 55.
I loved cod liver oil and malt. Allen and Hanbury's tasted best in my opinion. I remember Wintergreen. Blue bags were used for bee stings. Vick was used too. I was a pretty healthy child, apart from a tendency to bilious attacks.
No asthma or chest infections. I did get double pneumonia when I was 16. Later I had pleurisy a couple of times. Then at 40 I got a pleural effusion and encarditis.
Once I ate some ex lax, about half a bar after seeing the adverts. The consequences were awful.
Does anyone remember the delicious Welfare Orange Juice? I have never found anything quite like it since.
I remember iodine and gentian violet. Being a bit clumsy and not at all sporty, I got a lot of bumps and grazes.
I remember falling off my bike and landing in a ditch, much to the amusement of a young man passing by on a tractor.
Thinking back, I got short of puff when running, I wasn't plump though. My Mother was a smoker though.
When I got earache my Mother would put warm olive oil in the affected ear.
For nettle stings the remedy was to rub a dock leaf on the bumps.
Your Mother's medicine cabinet certainly brought back memories.
Thank you dear Vashti xxx
The ability to reply to this post has been turned off.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Tiny Crisp Apples and Midnight Feasts...And Seriously Awful Wine.
Life in the 1950s Part 3
