Growing Up Before Google: Five Things My Mother Had Me Completely Convinced Were True
The childhood cures I believed because Mom said so.
If you grew up in the 60s or 70s, you probably didn’t need a pediatrician very often.
Your mother had it covered.
She knew exactly what caused every ache, every sniffle, every bump, every scrape, every strange smell, every bad haircut, every stomach ache, and apparently every future medical condition.
The source of this knowledge was never questioned.
It came from your mother.
Or the neighbor.
Or a woman at church.
Or someone who “knew these things.”
As children, we accepted every word as fact.
Not because any of it made sense.
Because Mom said so.
Looking back now, I realize my childhood was held together by five magical cures, a handful of terrifying warnings, and enough Vicks VapoRub to fumigate an entire neighborhood.
1. Water on the Knee
There was one warning that absolutely terrified me.
Not broken bones.
Not stitches.
Water on the knee.
I loved kickball.
Unfortunately, kickball involved falling.
Falling meant scraped knees.
Scraped knees apparently meant...
water on the knee.
I had absolutely no idea what that meant.
Did my kneecaps fill like water balloons?
Would I slosh when I walked?
Would I explode?
My imagination handled the details.
Every time I scraped a knee, I waited.
Certain the swelling would begin any minute.
I was convinced I’d be the first kid in history to inflate from the knees down.
Thankfully...
it never did.
2. Vicks VapoRub
I honestly believe Vicks was considered a miracle drug in our house.
Cold?
Vicks.
Cough?
Vicks.
Sore throat?
Vicks.
Congestion?
Vicks.
Growing pains?
Probably Vicks.
The directions on the jar said one thing.
Mothers had their own version.
Rub it on your chest.
Behind your ears.
On your feet.
Wear socks.
Sleep.
Wake up cured.
Whether it actually worked remains open for debate.
What I do know...
you could smell a kid with Vicks from three houses away.
Looking back, I think Vicks wasn’t just medicine.
It was my mother’s security blanket.
If she rubbed enough of it on me, somehow everything was going to be okay.
3. Mercurochrome
If Vicks smelled unforgettable...
Mercurochrome looked unforgettable.
That tiny bottle of bright red liquid somehow managed to make every scraped knee look dramatically worse.
The scrape wasn’t the memorable part.
The burning was.
It stung.
It stained.
It made every scraped knee look like a scene from a horror movie.
And somehow...
Mom would smile and say,
“There. All better.”
Really?
Because it certainly didn’t feel better.
4. Vinegar Hair Rinse
My mother insisted vinegar made your hair shiny.
Maybe it did.
But there was one unfortunate side effect.
School.
One day another kid leaned over and asked,
“Why does your hair smell like salad?”
That was the exact moment I began questioning family beauty treatments.
I eventually switched to conditioner—or what we called cream rinse back then.
My classmates appreciated it.
5. Shaving Makes Hair Grow Back Thicker
This one haunted my teenage years.
Don’t shave your legs too early.
It’ll grow back thicker.
Thicker?
How much thicker?
Were we talking...
slightly darker?
Or...
gorilla?
My imagination skipped right past “a little thicker” and landed squarely on gorilla.
I delayed shaving my legs far longer than my friends because I was convinced I’d wake up looking like Bigfoot.
Spoiler alert.
I didn’t.
My mother was wrong.
The funny thing is...
I don’t remember questioning any of these remedies.
Not once.
Children simply trusted.
Today we Google everything.
Symptoms.
Reviews.
Ingredients.
Second opinions.
Back then...
our mothers were Google.
Their search engine was generations of advice passed from kitchen to kitchen.
Some of it worked.
Some of it absolutely didn’t.
But every remedy came from the same place.
Love.
They were trying to fix whatever hurt.
The only way they knew how.
Funny how, decades later, I can’t remember every birthday present or every school lesson.
But I remember the smell of Vicks.
The sting of Mercurochrome.
The vinegar in my hair.
And a mother who was absolutely certain she knew exactly how to make everything better.
Most of the time...she did.
❤️ Share this story.
Did your mom have remedies that would never survive Google?
Tell me in the comments.
And if this brought back memories of your own childhood, I’d love it if you’d share it with a sibling, cousin, or friend who grew up believing the exact same things.
Take another trip down memory lane…
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I had to laugh remembering all of those “cures.” I related to all but the water on the knee. I missed that one. I’m impressed you continued to play kickball.
Vicks remedies were passed down through the generations in our family… mom got it from Grandpa. He swore by the Vicks up the nostril trick for a stuffed up sinus. (Oh my…Neuro toxin direct upload!).
I kept the one on the bottom of feet with sock covering for early cold relief and achy muscles.