Tag Archives: Old Time Medicine

Let’s Talk About…. In The Olden Days

by Donna Phillips


This lovely old photo is my hubby’s grandmother, Mary Ethel Leverich Oswald (1886-1967). This was her high school graduation photo……. today’s high school graduation photos look nothing like this, do they?? Yes, the Olden Times were different…… for instance:

If We Didn’t Have It We Used:

  • Q tip  —  cotton wound around a match
  • Scouring powder  —  wood stove ashes
  • Glue  —  raw egg white
  • Hot water bottle  —  heated rock or bag of heated rock salt
  • Toothpaste  —  salt mixed with baking soda
  • Paste  —  flour mixed with water
  • Bandage  —  torn-in-strips old bedsheets
  • Adhesive tape  —  needle and thread
  • Deodorant  —  baking soda
  • Ice  —  hailstones or blocks cut in winter from a pond or river
  • Waxed paper  —  found inside cereal boxes
  • Sandwich bags  —  waxed paper
  • Foil  —  gum wrappers
  • Ink  —  laundry bluing
  • Group transportation  — truck with seats in back
  • Tire repair kit  —  can of rubber patch and glue
  • Air for tires  —  hand operated tire pump
  • Toilet tissue  —  Sears or Wards catalog
  • Salad dressing  —  cream, sugar and vinegar mixed well
  • Sanitary napkin  —  old sheets
  • Pencil sharpener  —  knife
  • Fingernail clipper  —  kitchen scissors
  • Salve/Ointment for wounds  —  lard mixed with kerosene and turpentine
  • Hand lotion  —  cream or lard
  • Laundry soap  —  you made it from grease and lye
  • Lunch pail  —  lard bucket with a handle
  • New mop —  old clothing on a mop stick
  • Cough syrup  —  raw onion and sugar syrup
  • Fresh milk  —  milked a cow twice daily

So do you really think life was better in the good old days? How would you have fared?

(Thanks to Nostalgia Magazine, Nov-Dec 2010 issue for this wonderful article by Leone A. Browning.)

Let’s Talk About…. It’s A Wonder We Survived

by Donna Phillips

Cocaine toothache drops for teething toddlers??? Guess it WOULD work, but would you have???


 Yes, it is a wonder that our ancestors survived the medical knowledge and practices of their times. Most any page on an old newspaper will regale you with “Miracle Cures!”  “Drunkeness Cured!” “Blindness Prevented & Cured!” Really? In reality, I’ll bet many of our ancestors suffered the same physical ailments that we have today but relief was not often in sight. 

Here’s what the ads explained and promised:

“BLINDNESS, prevented and cured by the great “Actina,” an electrical pocket battery which removes cataracts, pterygiums (?) and cures granulated lids. 18 years of proof given; no cutting or drugging. Write for our 80-page directory of diseases.”

“COMBINATION MUD BATHS, wonderful cures have been effected by taking the famous Medical Lake Mud Baths. Rheumatism, eczema and all know diseases quickly and permanently cured. We have a modern plant; our bath house has 39 tubs, all cement. Our experience is sufficient to warrant satisfaction. Medical Lake Sanitarium, Mud Pumped from the Bottom of the Lake.” 

“DRUNKENESS CURED,  Any woman can cure her husband, son or brother of liquor drinking by secretly placing this remedy in his coffee, tea or food without his knowledge, as the remedy is entirely odorless and tasteless. Any good and faithful woman can wipe out this fearful evil and permanently stop the craving for liquor….the sight or odor of whiskey will soon make him sick. Any one who will send their name and address and 4-cents in stamps to cover postage (to St. Louis) will receive by mail, sealed in a plan wrapper, a free package of this wonderful remedy and full instructions how to cure the liquor habit.” 

I found this wonderful article in Nostalgia magazine, December 2006, article by Hilda Maston.