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.
Haha, thank you, Kathryn! 😊 It’s funny how so many of those “cures” were universal. And honestly, missing kickball would’ve been far more traumatic than the sore knee!
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.
😂 “Neurotoxin direct upload” made me laugh! I can almost smell the Vicks just reading your comment. It’s amazing how many of us grew up with the exact same remedies.🥰
I also think your point about mentioning the 70’s era is so valid as it was such a time of empowered natural remedy before all the marketers jumped on board. Something very pure about that time.
You know, I hadn’t connected that to the ‘70s, but I think you’re onto something. There was a simplicity to those home remedies before every ache and sniffle had a dozen products competing for our attention.
The Vicks vapor rub was a favorite of my Mom’s and if we were not cured every so often it might have been accompanied by a hot tottie. Boy times have changed.
We were just laughing about Mercurochrome. Back then, orange spots weren’t embarrassing—they were status symbols! I wore mine like military medals. The more orange blotches I had, the more attention I thought I deserved.
And can we talk about that applicator? One tiny little brush that made the rounds on every scraped knee, cut finger, splinter, mystery rash, and probably the family dog. Ewww!!
As for my mom, Sandy, our medicine cabinet was one cure for absolutely everything:
“I had that when I was your age.”
Headache? Cramps? Stomach ache? Broken heart? “I had that when I was your age.”
Such a comforting reply/ diagnosis for every malady I threw her way! She’s 90 now, so I have to admit… her medical philosophy was/ is pretty impressive!!!!
😂 “I wore mine like military medals” made me laugh! And yes—that tiny Mercurochrome brush probably treated every child (and the dog!) in the neighborhood. Your mom’s universal diagnosis is priceless. Thanks for sharing these memories—they brought back even more of my own. ❤️
So many feels from this post. I think I learned water on the knee from that game Operation. I found a bottle of Mercurochrome in my mother's medicine cabinet on my most recent visit. I think it has been there since 1972. I had the fear of god in me over the shaving thing because my mom told me she'd know because it would grow back so thick - like you said...gorilla? But the best one from my childhood? We couldn't get ice cream from the ice cream truck because he poisoned kids. 🤣 Now I know that it was probably a listeria or E-coli thing from poorly-cleaned machines that she was worried about, but back then without Google? I was convinced the ice cream trucks were driven by deviant criminals that would selectively choose which child out of the group to poison. And I didn't want it to be me. So win-win, Mom because there was never an argument about whether or not we could buy ice cream from the truck.🤣🤣
🤣 Tiffany, my mom never warned me about the poisonous ice cream man, so apparently that risk was acceptable! 😂 We did have the mosquito truck barreling down our street, though, and I wasn’t allowed anywhere near that cloud of spray.
Every family had its own version of “truth.” I can’t wait to hear what everyone else grew up believing. And thank you so much for the restack! ❤️
Perhaps those poisonous ice cream men were only an upstate New York problem? 🤣 But yikes, that mosquito truck sounds equally as scary and that was real!
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.
Haha, thank you, Kathryn! 😊 It’s funny how so many of those “cures” were universal. And honestly, missing kickball would’ve been far more traumatic than the sore knee!
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.
😂 “Neurotoxin direct upload” made me laugh! I can almost smell the Vicks just reading your comment. It’s amazing how many of us grew up with the exact same remedies.🥰
I also think your point about mentioning the 70’s era is so valid as it was such a time of empowered natural remedy before all the marketers jumped on board. Something very pure about that time.
You know, I hadn’t connected that to the ‘70s, but I think you’re onto something. There was a simplicity to those home remedies before every ache and sniffle had a dozen products competing for our attention.
The Vicks vapor rub was a favorite of my Mom’s and if we were not cured every so often it might have been accompanied by a hot tottie. Boy times have changed.
I love this! It seems every family had its own “medicine cabinet folklore.” Vicks was definitely a universal language in our generation. 😊
Medicine cabinet folklore — that is exactly what it was. Passed down like it was scripture. Nobody questioned it.
We were just laughing about Mercurochrome. Back then, orange spots weren’t embarrassing—they were status symbols! I wore mine like military medals. The more orange blotches I had, the more attention I thought I deserved.
And can we talk about that applicator? One tiny little brush that made the rounds on every scraped knee, cut finger, splinter, mystery rash, and probably the family dog. Ewww!!
As for my mom, Sandy, our medicine cabinet was one cure for absolutely everything:
“I had that when I was your age.”
Headache? Cramps? Stomach ache? Broken heart? “I had that when I was your age.”
Such a comforting reply/ diagnosis for every malady I threw her way! She’s 90 now, so I have to admit… her medical philosophy was/ is pretty impressive!!!!
😂 “I wore mine like military medals” made me laugh! And yes—that tiny Mercurochrome brush probably treated every child (and the dog!) in the neighborhood. Your mom’s universal diagnosis is priceless. Thanks for sharing these memories—they brought back even more of my own. ❤️
So many feels from this post. I think I learned water on the knee from that game Operation. I found a bottle of Mercurochrome in my mother's medicine cabinet on my most recent visit. I think it has been there since 1972. I had the fear of god in me over the shaving thing because my mom told me she'd know because it would grow back so thick - like you said...gorilla? But the best one from my childhood? We couldn't get ice cream from the ice cream truck because he poisoned kids. 🤣 Now I know that it was probably a listeria or E-coli thing from poorly-cleaned machines that she was worried about, but back then without Google? I was convinced the ice cream trucks were driven by deviant criminals that would selectively choose which child out of the group to poison. And I didn't want it to be me. So win-win, Mom because there was never an argument about whether or not we could buy ice cream from the truck.🤣🤣
🤣 Tiffany, my mom never warned me about the poisonous ice cream man, so apparently that risk was acceptable! 😂 We did have the mosquito truck barreling down our street, though, and I wasn’t allowed anywhere near that cloud of spray.
Every family had its own version of “truth.” I can’t wait to hear what everyone else grew up believing. And thank you so much for the restack! ❤️
Perhaps those poisonous ice cream men were only an upstate New York problem? 🤣 But yikes, that mosquito truck sounds equally as scary and that was real!