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Being Under the Weather

By Jeanie ( Hurley ) Smith

Editor ’ s note- This article is one of Jeanie ’ s favorites that she wants to share with you again .

I have been a little puny lately . My Mother would have said I have “ been under the weather ” but with the kind of weather we ’ ve been having , I was afraid to say such a thing for fear I might never get out . Didn ’ t I mention something a while back about not snowing like it used to ? Forget it !!

Anyway , because of my condition , my body finally convinced my brain that I needed to slow down a bit so I ’ ve laid on the couch for a couple of days which got me to reflecting on how different

it is to be sick today than it used to be .

I don ’ t know about your house , but at our house and other homes I went to , “ back in the good days ” when you were sick , you went to bed and you stayed there until you got better or died , which ever happened to come first . If you were lucky , you got to get up and sit in a chair for a while . And , if you were well on your way to recovery , you might get to go to the table for your meal . Otherwise , you got those served in bed too - on a bed tray . There was always someone to take care of you .

We also had special bedclothes we put on the bed when you were sick . They were kept aside for just that purpose . You also had certain gowns , robes , bedjackets and slippers for this special occasion . You always had to keep your hair neat and clean and try to look your best in case company came to call . Now , when I ’ m feeling “ poorly ”, I drag my body with its old night gown and faded robe to the couch . My hair usually looks like I may have stuck my finger in a light socket and I look like I could be listed as a “ coming

attraction ” at Brater ’ s Funeral Home .

Being sick is nothing new to me . I was a sickly baby and I ‘ ve never outgrown it . However , I will probably live to be 100 , Old Doc Siefferman ( Loren ) used to say he had never cured me but he never let me die !

When I was a child , every winter I would get sick and stay that way ‘ til spring . No one ever knew what ailed me but my professional diagnosis is that it was the heating stoves and the coal-oil lamps ( allergies ). Dr . Elliot whose office was in Guilford across from the store was our doctor and he would come to the house with his big black bag every couple of weeks . He always prescribed the same little black pill that looked and tasted like charcoal , along with UPJohn ’ s cod liver oil and ironized yeast . I tell you , it was enough to kill a horse ! Mother would mash those horrible pills up and put them in jelly or applesauce , trying to disguise that dreadful taste but it was to no avail . The codliver oil was even worse . Now the ionized yeast wasn ’ t too bad . It was a little like chocolate candy and it was marked off in squares . You ate so many a day . That , I could handle .

As if all that wasn ’ t enough , Mother had her own :” homemade remedies “ that I had to endure . She would set a saucer on the top of the heating stoves and on it she would place half of a big onion with honey poured over it . It brewed all day . That was for cough and congestion .

The night was worse !! My throat was slathered with Vicks salve , and one of Daddy ’ s dirty wool socks was

wrapped around my neck … Mother insisted that a dirty sock worked much better than a clean one . And then there was more-- on my chest was placed a nutmeg poultice . This was a piece of cotton flannel covered with lard and then generously sprinkled with nutmeg and probably little ginger and cloves thrown in for good measure . Another piece of cloth is then placed over all that and put on my chest . Do you wonder now how I have lived so long ?? And can you imagine how I must have smelled ??

I was so skinny I looked like the running gears of Katydid . They would do everything to get me to eat more . My Grandma ( Mom Nowlin ) would mash up a potato with butter and salt and pepper , then smooth it flat and mark it off in inch squares and tell me to see how many I could eat . In every picture I ever had taken when I was that age , I was always behind something so my legs didn ’ t show . Talk about a complex .

It got real tiresome being in bed all the time -- no TV or radio to contaminate our mind but I had lessons to do which the teachers sent home with my sister , Doris , or Daddy every day .

I loved paper dolls . I would spend hours designing dresses from wallpaper samples that came from Mother ’ s wallpaper catalog . I named two of my dolls Virginia and Dorothy after Virginia Ellis Bentle and Dorothy Ellis Hart , who were sisters and older than me . I thought they were quite beautiful . Mom Nowlin taught me to embroider and crochet and do a little hand sewing .

Then , one year , the most exciting thing happened ! The neighbors on our road all went together and bought me a crystal radio ! I was ecstatic !!

It ’ s hard to describe but it was just a square piece of wood with some wires and small posts and in the middle was this funny little thing about the size of a penny called the crystal . On top of that was the most delicate wire you ever saw called cat hair which you had to move around very carefully to find a station . Attached to all this was a set of earphones to listen with which sometimes I shared by letting someone listen to one while I listened to the other . Daddy had to run a wire to the top of the house for an aerial and another one went into the cistern for a ground wire . What a marvelous invention that was . I could listen to Lum and Abner , Amos and Andy , Jack Armstrong- The all-American Boy , Ma Perkins and Dr . Brandt- Call Surgery . Never was I more excited over a gift in my life or more grateful .

We used to have illnesses you don ’ t hear about anymore , like the “ grippe ” or the epizootic or cholreamorbis . I never knew what cholreamorbis was but Mother said you could get it from eating green apples . So one time my friend , Patty Wallick ’ s daughter , Teresa ( Stutz ) was eating green apples and Patty said , “ Teresa you better not eat those green apples ‘ cause Bess says they will give you the Aurora Borealis !” She had her words a little confused- that happens to mean the northern lights !

So the next time you catch cold or get the flu , just get an old , dirty sock , rub some Vicks on your throat and go to bed- skip the poultice and the onion juice . I guarantee you , if you don ’ t die first , you will get better .

Don ’ t forget to tell your family and friends you love them . God loves us all .