Today it seems that if we get the sniffles that we go or take our kids to the doctor. It was not that way when I was growing up. If you went to the doctor, you must have been dying or they expected that you might die! There were several reasons for this. In the first place there were not that many doctors around then as there is today.
The second reason was that folks doctored themselves more then with home remedies, so mama was our doctor. Another reason was that money was very hard to come by and folks could not afford to go to the doctor for just any little thing that happened. When I wrote, “The ax and the scar” I had cut a gash about four inches long in my leg with an ax and they used kerosene just like they did when I nearly cut off my little toe.
It may sound barbaric, but my leg and toe healed and every sickness had a home remedy that was used with no thought of taking someone to the doctor. Don’t misunderstand me, I am thankful that doctors are readily available now and I would not want to go back to some of the home remedies that they used, but we probably don’t need to rely on doctors as much as we do.
One of the home remedies that I am really thankful that has changed is the way they treated burns. When you got burned when I was a boy, they put grease or lard on it, which probably did more harm than good. Mama thought that we needed a good cleaning out about once a year, so we were given Calomel tablets and you could taste it for years with every memory of it.
As much as I loved my mother, I am thankful that she is not my doctor any longer. Just something to think about!
