Shopping baskets through the years

In East Africa, in the 60s we had the kaolin and morphine mixture and something called TCP emulsion. I'm not sure what the latter had in it, though I'm pretty sure there was kaolin there; it certainly smelt and tasted of TCP. It worked like a charm on tropical tummy bugs.

Did anyone have to have Gregory's mixture for their bowels? It was a concoction of rhubarb and something else.
Also every Easter when we reached teen-age years, my sister and I were given a tablespoon of sulphur with treacle. It was revolting. It was supposed to be good for the skin.
I have to add, in all honesty, mine is excellent.

Parents certainly did seem to have an obsession about bowel movements in those days. I had to eat a spoonful of Sennakot granules - dry and disgusting - if I didn't 'go' every single morning...

I can still remember the foul taste. I'm sure it was supposed to be mixed with milk or water

Was anyone else give Fenning's Fever Cure? It surely was the formulation of the Devil.

Oh Crow the national orange juice was lovely! I've never found anything else that tasted like it.

You can still buy Dr Collis Browne's Mixture, but it now contains morphine and peppermint oil!

When we kids had coughs, my Mum used a cough mixture called Pulmo Bailey which was very effective and is still available. When I recently examined the label I realised that its efficacy was based on Codeine!

'White stuff', other than Milk of Magnesia which was chalky/minty I don't remember. Dr Collis Brown's was opium-based and made your tummy feel all warm (hardly surprising!)

absentgrandma could it have been "somebody's" bronchial emulsion? I've been wracking my brains all afternoon trying to remember the makers name.
I do remember it tasted nice.

Does anyone remember the metal 'coins' the Co-op had before the number system. They were very thin and stamped with the value of a coin, and I think you collected them, and could then cash the in.

I hated Scott's Emulsion but loved syrup of figs. The other thing I liked was National dried milk mixed with sugar in a paper bag, and you dipped your finger in it like sherbet.
I also loved the national orange juice but not the cod-liver oil. Malt was delicious.
I am definitely old, 73 and a half!!!! Don't feel it though.

Tinned spaghetti.... how cosmopolitan was that? And on toast..... the ultimate carb overload, not that we knew anything about 'carbs' back in those halcyon days.
Back to 'the white stuff'. I thought I'd cracked it with Scott's Emulsion, went to bed happy, then Galen pops up this morning to say it tasted vile! Oh bugger..looks like it's back to Google. I'm becoming obsessed with finding out what the heck it was. I really should get out more.

We had 'something' on toast; baked beans, tinned spaghetti, cheese, scrambled or poached eggs, sardines or pilchards in tomato sauce. Sometimes as a special treat and in season we had tomatoes or mushrooms on toast.

We used to have cod liver oil and malt, one tablespoon at bedtime during the winter! If we were unfortunate enough to suffer constipation mother gave us syrup of figs from a bottle. It was horrid. For breakfast we had corn flakes or rice krispies, sometimes we got Ricicles, I didn't like them as much though. A couple of times a week we had bacon sandwiches for breakfast. We had a man with a tractor and trail or round the street every Saturday selling fruit and vegetables. We got all our potatoes etc from him. He also sold crisps and little trays of toffee which was so hard you had to break it up with a hammer.

Virol! On toast! Marvellous!
No can get!

Porridge and fried bread for breakfast, national orange juice and a tablespoonful of Virol.
I used to walk around with a bottle of Kaolin and morphine in my pocket when I worked at a children's hospital, sonnei dysentery was rife. Good stuff, did the trick.

Afraid it is Ana!

You can still buy kaolin and morphine. But that's not the same as opium, is it?

DH used to swear by Indian Brandy - I don't think there's any alcohol in it, seems to be mostly herbal!

My mum used to give me Indian Brandy [but I don't know what it was for ].

Kaolin et morph used for centuries for diarrhoea! Very effective!

Opium? Good heavens!

Scott's emulsion! If matron thought you were faking being poorly she forced on you! Vile tasting stuff!
If she thought you were genuine you had the nice tasting one with liquorice and opium!
Oh the joys of a boarding school education

Ah! We could be getting warmer annsixty. Maybe I'm confusing the two things, and the 'white stuff' could have come out of a bottle rather than a jar(after all it has been nearly 70 years since I last tasted it) The google info doesn't make it sound very appetising and from what I remember it tasted lovely. I might do a bit more research. How sad am I?

The All Bran loaf brought back memories. Almost tempted to 'google' the recipe for that, then thought better of it

Agus, that All Bran loaf was a bit like sawdust! Miraculously, I had no need for that or anything else with a laxative effect after I escaped from Mum's clutches!

Scott's emulsion is a vitamin supplement with a mix of cod liver oil and vitamins A & D. I have never heard of it so had to google it.