Back in the day before hospitals and certainly before there was a pharmacy on every corner, the pharmacy was…well, either outside in the woods or in your grandma’s kitchen…There is nothing like grandma’s cooking, but turns out she had MORE than cornbread and beans to cure what ails you…
Many of the folks we’ve interviewed over the years talk about their grandmothers and their special potions. More psychological than physiological? You decide!
Nosebleeds? Carry a buckeye in the pocket…you read it here.
According to Judge Richard Doughton, his grandmother felt that if you had a sore or a cut…the only thing to put on it was…wait for it… kerosene…no matter what…she strongly believed that it worked because it burned…can’t fight that logic.
Got a cold? We’ve talked to more than one person who said they had to take Turpentine with sugar… in a spoon…this might be a “home remedy” but do NOT try this at home!
Here’s one for you! Miss Agnes Joines, aka the queen of Sparta, North Carolina, said that during the winter her grandmother wore a little asifidity bag around her neck that had a special blend of herbs, and, in her own words, had a…peculiar smell!
Let’s go back in time…to 1918…as the Spanish flu was killing literally 3 percent of the world’s population. The putrid smelling herb from the fennel spice family in the asifidity bag became VERY popular and was stocked by pharmacies all over in an attempt to deflect the deadly strain of influenza.
I think I’ve finally figured out the power of asfidity…it was SO pungent…nobody, contagious or not, would come near you…voila…perfecto…hey, if it works…do you really care how?
There’s a Hollywood connection too: Granny Clampett actually mentions asfidity bags a couple of times in an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies…so now you know!
Word of the day…asifidity!
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