Is it time for another Geezer/Geezette Nostalgia Thread?

[trof]

Or not?

When you were a kid and had a cold did your mom smear Vick's Vaporub all over your chest to help you "open up"?
Did she safety-pin a dish towel or an old diaper under your jammy tops to keep the stuff off of them?

(Note: when you finally gain a hairy chest this is a bit more difficult to apply.)

And then she spread a little bit on your upper lip to help you breathe?
I can smell it now.
I'm a Vaporub junkie.
;-)

[Spinzonner]

1. Isn't Geezer unisex ?

[trof]

2. Well, it wasn't.

In the olden days.
Maybe it is now?

[aeolian]

3. I believe it's masculine...

...at least in common usage... :shrug:

[Arugula Latte]

4. Yep. I recall that.

Maybe I'll have to get a bottle just for the nostalgia.

[trof]

7. jar

I know...I'm picky.
:shrug:

[Arugula Latte]

21. That's right. Jar. I can picture the screw-top.

Now I think they probably have a pop-off top like a Vaseline jar.

[BikeWriter]

5. Yep, I've been Vick's Vaporubbed.

[Bunny]

6. I remember that!

I used to like vaporub, because when you got that, you knew you were really sick - getting the extra TLC from Mom was super, wasn't it?

[trof]

9. You were "officially sick" when:

1. You had a temperature. That was a dead cert.
"Oooo...your temperature is a hundred and one."
Physical/visual signs of a cold qualified with or without a temperature.

2. You had something with a NAME. Like measles or mumps.

3. You had a fracture. An actual broken bone. Sprains that caused a pronounced limp were also accepted. Especially is your mom witnessed the incident and there was visible swelling/redness involved.
Ice water soaking tubs and Ace bandages.
Some moms did hot water tubs.
Real hot.
I preferred the ice water.
I guess my tolerance of cold is higher than my tolerance of hot.

[Bunny]

14. Yep, temperatures were gold. So was vomiting.

Hard to argue with a kid who's heaving her guts out!

[trof]

16. True confessions: I did the finger-down-the-throat.

I guess I had some real "issues" with 8th grade.
Happily I outgrew whatever it was.
:shrug:

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. The legend has it that Mr. Vick used to ingest a teaspoon of

that stuff daily for general purposes.

[trof]

10. Wow. Don't know if I could do that.

[Bouncy Ball]

11. Oh heck yeah.

But I think my mom overdid it. She would put a bit under our noses, but then some would get IN our noses. We'd try to explain there were gobs of Vick's in our nose, but she wouldn't let us get it out, I think she thought we were trying to rub it off.

Also, she told me they still rubbed a Q-tip or finger with a little whiskey or brandy on it on a baby's gums if they were teething. And she said Ambesol had alcohol in it back then and she and her girlfriends used to "love to give that to you kids."

Wow, thanks mom! ;-)

[trof]

18. A fingertip of Bourbon rubbed on the gums.

I don't remember it happening to me (obviously), but I remember hearing about it.

[Kat45]

25. The teething 'rub' my mother had contained opium as an ingredient!

I found the bottle in the medicine cabinet years later and couldn't believe it! I didn't think that would be used in a medicine--for babies no less--in the fifties! Of course I don't remember it being used on me, but I assume it was.

[kath]

26. I think that would be Paregoric, with the opium in it. Amazing, huh?

[48pan]

12. My Mom put Musterole on my chest

and Vicks up my nose. Yuck.

[trof]

13. Yep, I remember Musterole too.

Mustard plaster in a handy jar.

[48pan]

15. Disgusting. Mustard powder in petroleum jelly.

What a waste of good mustard.

[trackfan]

17. We had a large glass vaporizor

which steamed up the whole room. Besides the Vapo-Rub on chest and under nose, Vicks also sold Vapo-Steam, a spoonful of which, added to the vaporizor water, gave the house that nice menthol smell.

[trof]

20. Vaporub has a bath thing now.

I hit Amsterdam with a hell of a cold.
I was an airline pilot.
In a Dutch drugstore I found this stuff.

I also bought a bottle of brandy.
Got some lemons and sugar from the hotel kitchen.

Ran a steaming hot tub. (The Dutch tubs are nice and deep. Not like our standard stuff.)

Put the Vaporub stuff in the tub, mixed a big hot toddy with the scalding hot water from the tap, and settled in.

Nirvana.
Repeat.
And repeat.
Bed.

I was damn near well the next day.

[Old_Fart]

19. Mustard plaster

n/t

[nini]

22. oh GOD yes..

my sister and I were just laughing about that a few weeks ago when I had a cold.

My mom told me to rub vicks on the bottom of my feet to stop the coughing. LOL

[nini]

23. Then there was this baby that cured all too!

My grandma and my mom used that on just about everything. It burned like heck but did work :D

[kath]

27. heh, kinda like the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding putting Windex on

everything!

[Kat45]

24. Yup. She'd also put a little inside my nose using a Kleenex.

That was kinda gross. Had it on the chest, but no dish towel.