Home remedy

Every word of the following is the Gods truth.  It would be hard to make it up.  When I was a little kid, we lived on a small farm southwest of Garrett, Indiana.  Just down the road was a small rundown house that was a rental.  The folks that occupied the home were from the hills of Kentucky.  This happened around 1946-47.  

The elderly grandmother came to see my mom.  She wanted to borrow one of my dad’s work shoes.  Needless to say, my mom was a bit taken aback and asked why she needed one of dad’s shoes.  The old woman explained that the baby had “thrush mouth”.  I have no idea if that is a real disease or illness or not.  The old woman wanted to cure the baby.

It seems the process was to borrow the work shoe of someone that was of no kin to you.  You placed an amount of water in the shoe and ran it from heel to toe nine times.  Then you gave it to the baby to drink.  This cured the “thrush mouth”.

Mom solemnly got one of dad’s shoes and gave it to the lady.  Mom did not laugh or make any comment about the remedy.  The old woman brought the shoe back about an hour later. I have no idea if the remedy worked on not. 

Another time, in the spring of the year, my brother, sister, and I all came down with the measles but had not as yet broken out with the blisters.  The old grandmother brought my mom the roots of some dead nettle plants. She instructed mom to boil the roots and make a tea for us kids to drink.  That would make us “break out”.  Mom was a bit hesitant, but the old lady insisted so mom made the tea and we all drank it.  We then promptly broke out with the measles.  I have no idea if it was pure coincidence or if there was some component of the roots that caused the result, so I am unable to draw any conclusions on that home remedy. 

Dal Wolf.  Auburn