MUMS REMEDIES

I remember some of the medicines we were given when we were sick, or to ward off sickness.  
We would have to line up, the oldest first, down the line to little ol' me.  Of course the boys would carry on as if they were taking some vile tasting poison.  They always got the reaction from us girls that they were trying for... The faces they would pull and the groans they made.  They would hang onto their throats and carry on.  We girls  would be terrified of what the stuff would taste like and more terrifying was what the heck would it do to us?  Brothers are amazing.  Honestly, I wonder what their lives would have been like if they were without us mere girls.  We afforded them no end of fun. 

In the days of my childhood, it was automatic for kids to be dosed up on stuff so we wouldn't get your common ailments, including worms.  We had this medicine we had to take so we wouldn't end up scratching our bums in public. I find I see many little kids when I go to town, digging at their backsides, and I have to wonder if the modern mums realise what it is.  Do they understand we are just like kittens.  These little kids need to be wormed, just like kittens...We never had much of a chance of getting to the stage of bum digging, cos mum was very........anal. ( Gotta love that one.)  But put a kid who has been wormed beside a kid who hasn"t, wait for a few minutes and you will definately notice which one needs a dose.

Then there was the Goita? tablets. (If you can correct the spelling, you are welcome)  These were tiny little white pills.  we had to take one every day.  The school gave them out, and the teachers would hand them to us and make sure we took them.  I remember they tasted ok.  Sort of dry and not nasty tasting at all. 
One of our school holidays was coming up and mum got heaps of these pills.  I put mine in a match box so I would not miss out, or mum wouldn't get confused as to who had had theirs.  We obviously had a marvelous holiday, I mean what else could we have on the farm?  One day I noticed I had only a few pills left so guessed it was nearly time to go back to school.  I didn't think to say anything to mum, cos she was the mum and she would know that.  Well apparently I was wrong.  Probably because she had so many unruly kids all home at once suddenly, she lost track of the weeks. I can't remember if the school contacted us or what happened, but I do remember, we had an extra week off school, than every one else, cos mum didn't send us when she was supposed to.  Hey it could happen to anyone.  It happened to me in a sort of way.  When I lived in Victoria, when the Melbourne Cup day came, it was a public holiday.  I moved back to Tassi and when the kids began school, I let them stay home on the Melbourne cup day.  I sent them to school the next day, and was questioned closely as to why they hadn't attended school the day before,  I just said, "Well, it was a public .holiday."  This particular teacher was a bit of  pain and she said to me in no uncertain terms, that actually it was NOT a public holiday in Tassi.  She made it sound like I had kept them home so they could plan a full scale riot for a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup.  Stupid cow.

Anyway. One night when my sisters and  myself (not all of them) were in our bedroom, lights out, looking up at the night sky while we were waiting for tea.  We usually had tea late, cos dad would still be milking.  Well this night I noticed the clouds.  They were black and scarey, and when I voiced  my fears,  my sisters also began to worry.  I think we began to think the world was gunna end that night.  Hopefully after we had tea.  During the days we would play and muck about all over the place.  Down the creek, in the crops, in the ferns, just as long as we were outside, we were happy.  Well here we are thinking the world was about to expire, when I felt something tickling the back of my ear.  I rubbed it a bit and stuff. Then it began to feel wierd.  I asked my bigger sister to look at it.  When we put the light on, there was good news and bad news.  The good news first.  The sky looked just as it always looked at night, once the light was on.  The bad news is, I had a tick on the back of my ear.  AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH Even now, I think ticks are the most horrendous (scorpions come a close second, real close second) things out.  YUK.  I ran out to mum, who was no doubt up to her neck in cooking ingredients, and was no doubt crying.(I would be crying, not mum) Well wouldn't you? She finally understood what the matter was and said I would have to wait for dad to come in, from the cowshed.  Boy o boy. I know i was beginning to feel bad.  I know this tick was sucking my blood and wouldn't stop until he had sucked it all out.  I was fading fast.  Just in the nick of time dad came in and had a look. Yup, he says, its a tick alright.  Be back in a minute and we'll get rid of him.  Next thing I know he lights a match and sizzles my hair and the back side of my damn ear.  I hear this pop sound and a tug, and dad says, that's it, all over, and walks off.  I tell you, I had a nervous breakdown after that, and even to day I can't stand those horrible things.  My daughters little dog had one on her and I got, what mum would call the "screaming meamies"  My  horse had one on him once and my daughter and I would have looked like some mime show.  We were trying to get rid of it, and eventually I dabbed metho on it, and about ten minutes later it dropped off, but yuko.  Horrible still.
My mum was a stickler for getting us our inocultions.  Spelt wrong? I typed it as its sounds.  Anyway this year we went to the town hall with the whole town of children.  The line was soooooo long and I wasn't very old, probably about 5 or 6.  We were all together, and my sisters were pushing and shoving and trying to miss the jab.  I must have heard them saying stuff about the doctor which I clearly didn't understand.  I can see the doctor in my mind as if it was yesterday.  Not a handsome man mark my words.  Not kindly, nor smiley, nor cheery.  He was a boney faced, greazy haired, tall gangly man with  huge needle in his hand.  When it came to my turn, in front of my sisters, (obviously they pushed me in front) he grabbed my upper arm and said something to me.  Can't remember what, but it couldn't have been nice. I can sort of remember what my reply was.  It was something I had heard from my sisters.  I don't know which one.  It wasn't sweet, or angelic.  It wasn't friendly or said in fear.  It was simply something I had heard and knowing my sisters, they were very smart and I know they knew more than me, so I guess I thought I would sound grown up if I said what they had. Only they would never have said it to the doctors face like little ol me!  I was yanked back from the line by mum and got a spanking.  In front of everyone.  Now thats not fair. No one else got a smack. That's the trouble with being the little-est.  You just copy them but don't understand what to say out loud and what not to.  I did get my needle that day, and I believe that because of the trauma I went through, to this day I am terrified of needles.  And I'm going to the dentist in 3 weeks to get the root of  a wisdom tooth out.  The dentist who took the tooth out, forgot the root. Dumb A..    
I'm sure we got cod liver oil too, for something, cos I remember mum always had a spoon full of home made jam at the ready, once we swallowed that horrible stuff.  When we grew up a bit and she gave us aspro or any other medicine in pill form, she would crush it up and mix it into jam or brown sugar.  You know the saying, or the song Julie Andrews sings?  A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.  I can tell you now, she speaks the truth.   
                                           See ya later.