Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)

© irene waters 2016

Last month’s Times Past looked at clubs and having only received responses from Baby Boomers all I can conclude is that no matter where you lived clubs were not associations we joined in our youth on a large scale. Red Cross and girl guides being the most common ones encountered. Interestingly some people experienced more group activity when they joined the club of motherhood and encouraged their own children to join associations that they had not themselves experienced.

So on to this month’s prompt. Rules can be seen here. Don’t forget to put where you were living at the time of the remembered event and what generation you belong to.

I have just been in hospital having repairs to my bunions and hammer toes. The experience was unlike I had expected having nursed a number of people with a similar affliction. I had micro-surgery with multiple little cuts and although bones were removed and others broken, screws were all that were required to keep the bones in alignment post-operatively. This used to be an extremely painful procedure. I won’t deny that there is pain but nothing like I expected, so I consider myself pain free. Those in the past had to have 6 weeks without walking. Although I can’t walk, I can hobble with a special boot. Another major advance.

With this procedure occupying my thoughts I wondered what other common treatments may have changed in our life-time. I’m sure someone has tonsil stories ( I still have mine but I’ve heard some beauties from people no older than myself). Did your mother have a special remedy for anything? My mother used to say “feed a cold and starve a fever.” This dates back to 1574 and in the 1950’s my family was certainly still following it. My husband’s family had totally discounted this and Roger’s Mother treated every ailment they had with chicken stock. “Jewish Penicillin” Roger calls it and he uses it as both a prophylactic  and acute disease treatment. He swears by it and is according to his doctor is one of the few septuagenarians he has seen whose blood results are all in the black and who does not take a single pill. Jamie Oliver’s mum must also have sworn by this as Jamie does a Jewish penicillin with traditional matzo balls. With a bit of searching I have found that the medicinal properties of this soup are reported as far back as the 12th century. Older than the eat and starve regimen. Do you have home remedies that you still use or have you discarded them for something better?

Join in with experiences whether home remedies or hospital where treatment has altered or perhaps remained unchanged for centuries.

Baby Boomer

Rural Australia

One treatment that I would probably not follow again would be my Father’s treatment for warts. I had a girlfriend when I was at school who had warts all down her shin bones. This caused her a lot of embarrassment and she tried everything to get rid of them including milk thistle, apple cider vinegar, banana peel and various other herbs, fruits and vegetables. She would occasionally knock the top off her wart and blood would pour down her leg so of course, when I got a wart on my finger I blamed her for the occurrence. I knew nothing had worked for her and I was desperate to have it gone. My Father gave me a treatment and miraculously mine did go eventually. I don’t know whether it was anything to do with his treatment or just time and a good immune system. These days I think I’d buy a bottle of something from the chemist. My Dad told me to take a piece of paper and trace the outline of my hand with wart on it. Then I was to get a match and set fire to the wart on the piece of paper. My entire traced hand disappeared in flames. I was to repeat this everyday until the wart went. I did this religiously for awhile (probably a week), lost faith but also eventually lost the wart. My Father believed warts were psychologically induced and you just had to fool the brain into believing them gone. Much as asthma was initially viewed, but perhaps someone else has that story.

Hope you join in even if only in the comments.

City Australia

Treatments: Times Past