When I moved to Allen 56 years ago, the practice of medicine and pharmacy was a lot different. I noted that a lot of housewives took some sort of sleeping pill each night. This usually make them groggy the next morning, so their doctors gave them a pill which jolted them awake for their daily grind. Or to put it another way, a downer for sleep and an upper to wake ‘em up.

Well, people still medicate themselves this way—helps them get through their day. And boy does it! Meth is now very popular and a cheap “Peoples drug.” You can even make it yourself if you’re careful not to blow up your house. Of course, the use of meth will rot your front teeth out.

There was considerably more use of these homemade drugs. My brother Gerald was disappointed that I couldn’t give him more information on the old home remedies like our grandma Julia made from roots over at Lula. I thought of her as I compiled my list of old homemade remedies that were used when I was young, One of the most common problems back then was earache. My dad would be rousted out of bed at 2AM and commanded to get out his pipe, blow smoke in my pediatric ear. It worked. Dad said it was the nicotine and he used his oldest pipe for this. Another remedy called for a warm raisin in the ear. Doesn’t work.

Got boils? Boil BBs in milk, pour (decant) and put drops in ear. Make sure no BBs get in ear. Chronic bowel, stomach or “gut” problems? Taraxacum Tea. Dig up some Dandelions, crush roots, clean, boil into a tea. Drink while still warm. Also good for summer complaint. Another cure involves this: cook onions and sugar into a syrup and drink it. For boils, mix castor oil, orange juice in equal parts, warm it up and drink it. Yuk!

Bad joints? Dig up a handful of redworms, wash with cool water, put ‘em in a hanky, hang over a heat source and catch the oil that drips out. Rub on affected joints and apologize to the worms. Warts? Take a piece of round steak, affix with a bandage and wear it 3 days. Remove it. Wart gone. Want to avoid flu? Place liberal amount of garlic on Rye bread. Eat. Avoid “root” receipts. Why? Too dangerous. I don’t want to kill any of my readers.

Have a good week and be sure and go to church Sunday!

Wayne Bullard, D.Ph cwaynebullard@gmail.com