You Wouldn't Have Wanted to Get Sick In My Day!

Health care was very different when I was young. You just didn't go to the doctor with every sniffle, but if you were really sick, the doctor would actually come to your home. I'm afraid those days are gone forever. In my home Mother practiced what was felt at the time some preventative measures. Today we give our children vitamins and try to get them to eat a healthy diet. It was cod liver oil, a fairly healthy diet, and warm clothing (remember those long stockings) when I was a child. Cod liver oil was considered the miracle elixir to prevent every possible kind of illness. And boy, was it nasty! We had to swallow a spoonful every night followed by a candy mint with a green chewy center to keep us from throwing it back up. Although dietary knowledge was not nearly as available as it is today, we ate pretty healthy according to today's standard. That is mainly because we grew our own fruit and vegetables, and raised our own meat. Did we always eat everything that was put on our plates? Do yours? Neither did we unless Dad was paying attention. He insisted we put some of everything on our plates and eat all of whatever we took. Like most kids, we weren't too crazy about those veggies, so we made sure we didn't take too many of them. However, one pea was not acceptable. Actually I love peas...raw. When we had to pick them in the garden, I ate more than I brought in the house. But I don't ever remember my parents complaining.

If we got sick we were treated with home remedies. For a fever it was a cold bath, bed rest, and maybe an aspirin. For a cold it was a warm vaporizer with Mentholatum - a greasy substance with menthol, much like Vicks today). If it was croup or bronchitis it was a mustard plaster...the very WORST treatment. It was made of powdered mustard, flour, and water or egg whites. It was stirred into a paste and then spread on a piece of fabric, usually flannel and placed, cloth side down, on your chest. It would create heat that was supposed to penetrate into the lungs, but more often than not it would also burn the skin. And it smelled SO bad. For a cough, it was homemade cough syrup made of lemon juice and honey. Actually that worked pretty well. There were only a very few times that I remember going to a doctor, so I guess I was pretty healthy as a child.

It is not too common today for children to get communicable diseases such as measles, mumps, chicken pox, diphtheria, etc. But they were very common back in the nineteen thirties and forties. I had them all, except diphtheria. Once you were diagnosed with one of these diseases, it was required by the state health board that you put a sign in a front window which said, "QUARANTINE - Measles," or "Mumps" or whatever disease was in your household. This was to warn any visitors to your home that they would be exposed to a contagious disease.

Besides the usual colds, occasional flu, upset stomach, sore throat etc. that are common today, there was tonsillitis. Even that is pretty prevalent today. But the difference between then and now is that at the first sign of infected tonsils, out they came. It was an accepted fact that all children would have to have their tonsils removed at some time. It was believed that tonsils served no purpose after infancy anyway, so no big deal. I remember well when mine were taken out in the doctors office when I was about five years old. It hurt!.. and I got a lot of sympathy and a lot of ice cream. I think that treatment works just as well today as it did then. Grandma Bernards called and asked if there was anything I would like to which I answered, "Some of your noodle soup". (That was the meat ball and noodle soup we so lovingly call "Grandma's soup" of which most of you are familiar.) That evening she came from Bountiful with a quart of the soup with instructions that it was all for me, and I didn't have to share it. Don't we love grandmas!!!!

This was my early health bio, with the exception of my eczema problems which I have already related... and my dental experiences as a child. That horror story will have to wait until another day.