Vicks VapoRub--The magic Healer
I was brought up on Vicks VapoRub. My Mother thought it was a magic cure all. Even after I married I did not escape the influence of Vicks! My husband thought the same things as my mother!When I was little and got a cold I got witchdoctored by my mother with Vicks chest rubs, swallowed lumps of the nasty tasting stuff and tons of it stuffed up my nose. I have to admit that when my mother would rub Vicks on my chest as she put me to bed and then placed a flannel cloth, warmed by the hot wood stove, on my chest it did feel kind of good. I am not sure it did much for my cold but my mother thought it did. I am sure medical people would frown on having a child swallow Vicks in this day and time or even putting it in the nose.
After I got married I went to bed every night with the pungent smell of good old Vicks VapoRub. My husband liked to put a little swipe of vicks across the area under his nose--I am not sure why--But he did it every night. I think maybe he thought it helped him breathe better. I often told him that I sure hoped Vicks didn't cause cancer because he was sure to end up with it if it did!
Not only did he like to use Vicks for colds and as a breathing aid, he also would use it to rub on anything out of the ordinary that grew on him or bothered him in any way. He rubbed it on pimples, blisters, sores, ingrown toenails and warts.
Now I see that Doctor Peter Gott, who has a medical column in many newspapers, recommends Vicks VapoRub for lots of ailments also. He says too, that putting a bar of soap down between the sheets by your legs will stop leg cramps--huh? I read that column all the time and some of his remedies sound bizarre but many people do write in lauding his homespun doctoring practices.
So now my husband is gone but I still have his trusty old bottle of Vicks VapoRub in my medicine cabinet. Once in a while I open the bottle and smell it just for old time's sake! But I promise you I will not be using it for anything else!
posted by kyra lafain @ 3/29/2008 01:00:00 PM
2 Comments:
Your mother and husband were wise people! Add another to the list of things Vicks VapoRub can heal...toenail fungus! My big toe nail was beginning to look pretty gross with a toenail fungus and my sister, who seems to recall everything she's ever read, told me to use Vicks. Well I have been using it faithfully and I must say the fungus is going away!
If we came in with a leg cut off, our father would say, "Put some Camphophenique on it."
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