I can tell you this, it ain’t just honey!

OH, MY WORD! I am cracking up just THINKING about this memory! I guess spending lots of time with my father and siblings over the past few months has allowed my thoughts to wander back to childhood.

We had various home rememdies when we were young. Wet tobacco on bee stings….baking soda for ulcers…globs of Mentholatum crammed up your nose for anything upper respiratory… Mercurochrome for cuts (OUCH!)………and home-made cough syrup for the obvious.

Once when I had a croupy cough in the fifth grade, I took a SueBee jar full of the latter to school, to swig whenever I had need. My teacher, Conradine Henderson, noticed me drinking out of the jar. She meandered over to my desk to investigate. I handed it to her, she unscrewed the lid and took a sniff, then exclaimed “What in the HAAAEEEEL are you drinking?!” (I’m close to rolling on the floor right now, I can see–and hear!–this like it was yesterday). I was taken aback by her candor and shock, it certainly was the FIRST time I had EVER heard a teacher use profanity! I don’t remember what happened after, I don’t even know if I told her the list of ingredients. I do think she confiscated it for the rest of the day.

And to this day for the life of me, I can’t figure out how honey, sugar and peach brandy was supposed to make me better.

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