My Great-Grandmother was born in 1923, so she is 80 years old. She had some very obscure remedies her mother taught her and used when she was a little girl. I had never personally heard of this one, but her mother swore by putting a few drops of kerosene into a teaspoon of lemon juice for coughs. She also said her father would blow cigar smoke into her ears to cure earaches (she said it really does work). He would also break a cigarette in half and place on a bee sting, and it would take the pain and swelling out. She said one of the oddest remedies she had ever heard of was tying a large slice of onion to the sole of somebody's foot to cure a cold. Another very odd remedy was one she said my great-grandfather used when he was alive. Anytime he would get a cut or scrape, he would let the dog lick it, and she said he always swore by that. And of course, she used a small amount of whiskey for chest pain and coughing. .
My great-grandmother grew up on a farm, so there was always a lot of work tending to animals and crops. She told me that she was out of bed at sunrise every day unless she was just too sick to do so. Then her dad would allow her to rest for the day. But anything else that was minor, she would be up working as much as she could. She said that they did not have the money for her or anybody else in her family to be sick, because there was so much work to be done. She also said that she thought people were stronger back then, but they were isolated in their little world where she grew up. They did not hear of many epidemics that spread and killed many people. She said she knew quite a few people who died of sickness then, but she knows some today also. Most people in her days had to work. She said she remembers during the Great Depression in the 30's, her dad worked even if he was on his death bed. She said if he did not show up to work, then there were thousands of people waiting and hoping that would take the job in a heartbeat.