Who says there’s no cure for cold
Scientists say they are still searching for a cure for the common cold, but if our readers are to be believed, their mothers and grandmothers have been using effective home remedies for years. “My Bubba came to live with us on Second Street in Brownsville in the early 1950s,” recalls Alice G. Craven of Elkton, Md., “and she brought with her a home remedy for cold or flu in the form of a ‘hot toddy.’ On the second or third day of a cold, when we were stuffed up and congested, we would wait patiently as she got out her cache of rock candy and put it in the bottom of a cup. She would pour hot tea and whiskey over it, cover it with a cloth, and let it steep. We would drink it, and with Bubba sitting at the side of the bed, we would fall asleep to the touch of her hand.
“The neat thing was that at bedtime, along with the hot toddy you received the care of a loving grandmother, stories from her life in the old country and here in America, and the best sleep that you’d had since the onslaught of the cold. The remedy was wonderful – especially the rock candy – but the tender loving care was the memory maker.”
Like Bubba’s hot toddy, home remedies were administered with a potent dose of love, which may help to explain why they often worked so well. In many families, when a child came down with a chest cold, Mom or Grandma immediately prepared a mustard plaster.
“I remember the good old mustard plasters that my mom, Alice Lane Staib, used to slap on my chest when I got bad chest colds,” reminisces George Staib, who grew up in West Brownsville in the 1930s and 1940s. “I had frequent bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia when I was young, and my poor mom must have been frantic, as there were no antibiotics in those days. Any time I came down with chest infections, Mom would create a paste of flour mixed with Colman’s yellow dry mustard.
“She would ladle the paste onto an old T-shirt or light towel, which needless to say would not be usable after that. Mom would put the plaster on me as it got hot, and when she took it off my chest, my skin would be pink from the heat. She would not leave it on me at bedtime, because if it were left on for too long, I know that I would have been burned.
“Mom would also give me a cup of hot blackberry wine to drink, and then she would pile blankets on me to get me warm. That treatment always broke my fevers.
“Mom is 87 years old now and in declining health. I wish that I could do for her now what she did for me so many times when I was a child.”
The heat produced by a mustard plaster was important to its effectiveness, but the patient needed to be carefully monitored during its use.
“Years ago,” notes South Side-raised Hannah Millward Fisher, “the recipe for the mustard plaster was on the Colman’s dry mustard can. As I recall, a paste of flour, water and dry mustard was put on a piece of cloth, which was applied to the chest and watched very carefully. If not monitored, the mustard could give a second-degree burn to the chest. When the skin appeared pink, the plaster was removed and camphorated oil applied to the area where the plaster had been. If the patient had not improved by the next night, the plaster could be applied front and back to the chest.”
Over the past 13 years, Elaine Hunchuck DeFrank, a staff member at the Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, has conducted interviews with coal miners, coke oven workers, and their wives and family members. Elaine has heard descriptions of many popular home remedies.
“A mustard plaster could be made by melting two tablespoons of lard in a large skillet,” Elaine explained. “To the melted lard, one would add one heaping teaspoon of dry mustard. The ingredients were heated on low heat and stirred to avoid scorching. The heated mixture was then poured on an eighteen-inch square of cloth, which was folded to make a poultice and applied to the area of pain, as this mustard plaster could also be used to relieve a sore back or aching muscles.”
Elaine related an amusing incident that happened when her own mother was seven years old.
“She went to the store and just pointed to what she thought was a jar of mustard on the shelf,” said Elaine, “and she took it home and gave it to her mother, who could not read or speak English. Her mother proceeded to make a plaster for her boarder’s sore back by smearing it on a cloth, warming it in the oven, then applying it to his back. The boarder reported that it relieved him of his pain, and he noted that the plaster smelled unusually good. It turns out she had made the plaster from peanut butter!”
Then there is the turpentine treatment, as described by reader Hank Greenberg.
“When I was about 10,” Hank recalled, “I had a sudden asthmatic attack while sleeping, and I awakened because I couldn’t breathe. My grandmother and mother heard my labored breathing and rushed into my room. My mother turned on the shower to get the steam going and took me into the bathroom. Meanwhile, my grandmother had disappeared. In a few minutes, she came back with a towel that reeked of turpentine. She wrapped a clean cloth around my chest, and then followed up by wrapping the turpentine cloth around this. By inhaling these fumes, I was able to breath normally again in a very short time.”
Jefferson Township native Nancy Willson Komacek of LaBelle also got the turpentine treatment.
“My Mom would mix turpentine and melted lard, rub it on my chest and back, then cover it with a homemade wool vest which tied on both sides,” Nancy explained. “The mixture was the consistency of a salve and although you couldn’t see it, you could sure feel it. It was a cheap substitute for Vick’s VapoRub.”
Vicks VapoRub! Nancy has mentioned the magical concoction upon which so many generations have relied to battle a cough or cold.
“My mom was a Vick’s VapoRub fan,” declared Bill Johnson of Olean, N.Y., who was raised in the 1930s and 1940s on Bull Run Road. “She used it for everything associated with a cold. She would put it on your throat, neck, chest, back, forehead, and in your nose. She would put some in a metal jar lid, heat it over the gas pilot on the stove, and make us breathe the heated vapors.”
Nowadays, some of the ways that moms used Vicks VapoRub are strongly discouraged on the product’s label. For example, the label cautions against heating VapoRub and warns that it should not to be taken by mouth or inserted into the nostrils.
“Mom had us ingest it,” continued Bill Johnson. “My wife doesn’t believe she made us do that, but I just turned 75 last month, so I guess it didn’t hurt me!”
“We had to swallow Vicks for a bad throat,” added West Brownsville native J.P. “Rocky” McAndrews. A third cold victim reported ingesting a spoonful of Vicks with a swallow of hot milk, while yet another told of boiling a small amount of VapoRub with water, lacing the resulting ‘tea’ with honey to mask the taste, and drinking two cups of it before bedtime.
Of course, all of these techniques fly in the face of strong warnings on the Vicks label that the substance should not be taken internally.
Willard Peet of Poland, Ohio, recalls another cold cure that involved a homemade tea.
“When I was a boy,” Willard explained, “I caught a cold while we were on vacation in Potter County. My dad went out, got some dried herb called ‘boneset,’ and steeped it to make hot tea. I never in my life have tasted anything so bitter.”
Boneset (eupatorium perfoliatum) was a favorite herb of North American Indians, and it is considered by herbalists to be one of the best herbs for relief of flu symptoms, fever, congestion, and constipation.
“All I know is it helped cure my cold fast,” declared Willard, “despite the fact that I only took one dose because it was so bitter.”
Even a well-known Brownsville doctor got in on the act, coming up with his own remedies for cold symptoms.
“I remember a true Brownsville remedy,” reported Donna Edwards-Jordan of North Huntingdon. “Dr. (Leroy) Waggoner dispensed his own brand of cold medication, which he may possibly have patented. They were little gray tablets called ‘Calcidin,’ which may not be the correct spelling. They were supposed to ‘dry you out’ when you had a head cold, and that was an understatement! Your nose stopped running because they dried you out to the point that it became painful to breathe. I wonder if anyone else remembers Calcidin.”
“I found a prescription recently,” added reader Marilu Stapleton Coppinger, “that Dr. Leroy Waggoner wrote for my mother, ‘Dutch’ Stapleton, when we moved from West Brownsville to Phoenix in 1949. I believe it was a salve for the chest to aid breathing in the case of severe colds or chest congestion. When I took it to a pharmacy, they said they couldn’t fill it because coal tar, an ingredient in the original prescription, was not available. The pharmacist said he could substitute something for the coal tar, but I firmly believe the coal tar supplied much of the curative powers, so I didn’t want a replacement.”
Whether relying on home-brewed ‘tea,’ a homemade plaster, or unconventional uses of Vicks VapoRub, many local folks have long depended on traditional remedies to treat everyday ailments. If you haven’t seen your favorite remedy mentioned yet, please feel free to give me a call. I invite you to join me here next week as we look at home remedies used to treat boils, burns, and other medical conditions.
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Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201 or 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, PA 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to Editor Mark O’Keefe, 8-18 E. Church St., Uniontown, PA or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com.
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