Tar in a jar

Mum always gave me a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda if I was feeling sick, which I guess is what’s in Alka Seltzer.

It was malt, i loved it, all that twirling round the spoon mmmm

I remember lots of these things. Other things we had in our medicine cabinet included, Golden Eye Ointment, Fullers Earth Cream, Orange flavour Junior Aspirin & Buttercup Syrup cough mixture. My Grandma used to have a tin of something called Slippery Elm, I always thought that sounded truly awful.

#Sparklefizz…I remember that awful
Minadex and also the Wrights coal tar vaporiser gadgets…in fact I used those in the mid 1970s when my firstborn had bad croup. Our home seemed to smell of it for years as I had three children quite quickly and croup was a frequent visitor to our house. I used to hate fiddling with the wretched stone that you had to use to place the evil liquid! Ended up with the stuff on my fingers and had to wash it off fast in case I rubbed my eyes. In the end I kind of grew to like the smell…or maybe it just reminded me of my little ones growing up. I don’t think they are still sold are they, those tin contraptions with the stone inserts? Gosh … memory lane here I come!

maytime2

I remember the Radiant malt. We were also given Adexolene to take as a tonic, it was vile. I also remember being given Owbridges cough medicine and Zambuk and Germolene ointment.
My mother used to give us "apple juice" for toothache. I found out later that it was actually neat whiskey that was sprinkled on some cotton wool for us to put on the offending tooth.

I loved Owbridges.I had whooping cough when I was 7 and it
left me with asthma.Mum used to give me a Fennings Little
Healer.They were tiny.

kaoline and morpheme, Gees Linctus, Collis Brown’s all things I remember with some pleasure from being ‘ill’ as a kid, but Cod Liver Oil was horrid

Ah yes - cod liver oil and malt, a large spoonful dispensed every morning as we left home for school. I can remember the horrid taste in my mouth as I sat on the bus 😩

I hated virol,once Mum and Dad had gone to work I was supposed to take a spoonful before I took myself to school. To my shame I put it down the sink every morning, we never had a blocked sink though!
I did like the orange juice though and the rose hip syrup and I always wore my vest so I wasn’t all bad.
Mum swore by Indian brandy, even in old age she always had a bottle in the cupboard, not sure you can still buy it.
I loved the smell of germolene,it just felt like it must be making things better if that makes sense

My mother used to babies gums with a piece of lint dipped in whisky to relive teething pains.She also put a what she called a small drop of whisky in our bedtime feeding bottle some would sleep all night, she learned this from her grandmother.
Does anyone remember ''Back Ache and Kidney Pills'' which were sold in corner shops?. People said they made your urine green so goodness knows what was in them!

Cold liver oil & malt every day and weekly had half a pink Sure Shield tablet on Sunday evenings, after the weekly bath. We had Eno’s when we had tummy ache, or Milk of magnesia, Karvol capsules broken on to one of dads big white handkerchiefs when we had a cold. When we were really poorly we had groats or a Farleys rusk mixed with hot milk.
Happy memories.

JPB123 Apparently they are sold as Jacksons Little Healers now.

Beechams Pills which were laxative.
Syrup of Figs was another one which my mother would dose us with.

And a teaspoon of brandy in hot water with sugar for tummy aches.

Oh yes, cod liver oil! If Mum wasn’t looking we’d let our Golden Labrador lick our spoons !! She loved it and had the shiniest coat imaginable!
Couldn’t do the same with the Virol, even the dog wouldn’t touch it !!

Angier’s Emulsion - a horrible thick yellow liquid which was supposed to keep us healthy
Daily haliborange tablet - I remember sneaking an extra one or two quite regularly because I loved them
Milk of Magnesia

For some reason never explained to me I had to take a dessert spoonful of dry powdery stuff daily. Mum said was calcium, it made me gag.
We also had warmed olive oil put in our ears.
Syrup of figs and milk of magnesia were in 'regular' use.

I was given Parishes Food. I found it so horrible that I climbed on top of the kitchen cabinet and hid the bottle behind the hot water pipes, not to be discovered until Dad redecorated years later!
My mother was fond of applying bread poultices ( bread soaked in very hot water , wrapped in a cloth and applied to the afflicted area. So painful. If we got a splinter some ‘ drawing ointment’ was applied, heaven knows what it contained but it worked. With medicine, Mum worked on the principle that the worse it tasted the more good it did, horrible dark brown onion tasting linctus for coughs. Always at hand was TCP for cuts, bruises and soar throats.
I also loved the malt in that curvy brown jar and, if I could get to the bottle without being seen, there was the lovely concentrated orange juice to be swallowed by the spoonful!

The drawing ointment was probably magnesium sulphate. I still use it.

My mother called it ‘toffee on a spoon’. I lived it. Still do!

grandmaz

#Sparklefizz…I remember that awful
Minadex and also the Wrights coal tar vaporiser gadgets…in fact I used those in the mid 1970s when my firstborn had bad croup. Our home seemed to smell of it for years as I had three children quite quickly and croup was a frequent visitor to our house. I used to hate fiddling with the wretched stone that you had to use to place the evil liquid! Ended up with the stuff on my fingers and had to wash it off fast in case I rubbed my eyes. In the end I kind of grew to like the smell…or maybe it just reminded me of my little ones growing up. I don’t think they are still sold are they, those tin contraptions with the stone inserts? Gosh … memory lane here I come!

I love the smell of coal tar soap so maybe all those years of the Wrights vaporiser had an effect!

The vaporisers with stone inserts are sold online as "antiques" I've just discovered.

We also had warmed olive oil put in our ears.

Yes, I had that. It was in the days when the only olive oil you could buy was in tiny bottles from the chemist.

Oh yes, Golden Eye Ointment SachaMac, I'd forgotten that. In our house it was the eye treatment that covered everything - eyelash in eye, a stye, sore eyes, shortsighted, longsighted, need glasses? No, have a squirt of Golden Eye Ointment.

Sparklefizz I often had styes and one "remedy" that was used was to rub the stye with a gold ring. But I also remember golden eye ointment. The tube was quite small.

I've got one for you.
Indian Brandee.
Brown liquid. Drink it neat or watered down. Either way, but both were awful.
Mind you, it sorted out that dodgy stomach but you'd be glued to the loo until it had finished it's job!!
It worked much better than the Dioralyte that was given to my children!

@Thorntrees,

I've only just seen your comment. So you had Induan Brandee/Brandy, too!
Oh it was foul stuff but it worked. I've not seen it for years, and I doubt I'd get anyone to drink it, anyway!

I loved malt extract- still do! I sometimes buy a jar as a treat! I remember the pharmacist making up his own treatments in bottles and tiny cardboard pots - his nappy rash cream worked better than anything else on the market. Were any of you Scots grans subjected to the hot toddy? I can still taste the warm whisky.....yuck! My granny used to pour an Askit powder straight onto her tongue and wash it down with a mouthful of milk. She also used to heat almond oil in a teaspoon to pour down our ears if we had earache. It's a wonder none of us are deaf.