Coddling wasn’t practiced at our house, but we were well cared for children. Mom selflessly kept us neat and clean, warmly dressed and engaged in healthful activity ("Go outside and play!"). We took cod liver oil (with our noses plugged) and ate liver regularly. More accurately, Mom served liver regularly. Swallowing without gagging was futile, so I chewed and chewed. Until the ruse was discovered, little ledges under the kitchen table were great temporary storage for covertly discarded mouthfuls.

Unlike certain brothers and sisters, I still have my tonsils and appendix, have never broken a bone or needed stitches, and didn’t see the inside of a hospital until I had a baby. Other than that sinus thing that I didn’t listen to Mom about, I’m a pretty healthy person. And I credit that hearty childhood!

A tin of Watkins Petro-Carbo Salve contained miracle properties to heal any wound. Vicks VapoRub for coughs and colds was liberally slathered on chest, throat, forehead, under the nose, and even ingested. Flannel cloths were wrapped around throats to keep them warm and assure that Vicks did its job. Carter’s Little Liver Pills (or prune juice!) took care of irregularity. And, of course, pink and tasty Pepto Bismol solved tummy troubles.

I don’t remember ever going to the doctor prior to moving to the city, but I got immunizations because the smallpox scar is still visible on my leg. Boys got it on the arm, but girls got it on the upper thigh so as not to ruin their beautiful arms in case they wanted to be Miss America someday.

Doctors are just practicing, after all. When we first came to Minneapolis, Mom brought me to a doctor for a swollen cheek and neck. He was stumped but gave me a shot of penicillin in the backside, becoming angry because, he said, I squeezed so tight that the stuff shot right back out. That guy scared me. I’m still not sure he was really a doctor, and he didn’t last long in our area as I remember.

Measles hit me in high school. Dr. Jurdy had me take my shirt off so the rash could be examined. One look and he opened up the door wide and loudly called in the nurse, “Nurse So and So, come in here and look at this girl’s skin. Have you ever seen such beautiful, smooth skin?” Huh?

Dr. Jurdy’s cure for everything was to drink more water (he was way ahead of his time in that area). He must have said something about staying out of bright light, too, because when I went out with my friends (measles wasn’t going to hold ME down), I wore two pair of sunglasses on top of each other!

It took a high fever or vomiting for Mom or Dad to let us stay home from school. But even then Mom’s general motto was, “Give it two weeks; if you’re not better we’ll go to the doctor.” Following her philosophy has saved me plenty of money over the years.

My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22