Have you been greased from head to toe with?

Question

Vicks Salve? (felt like)
I remember lying in bed with my respiratory system in durress. My mother walked in with a boiling pot of water containing vicks salve. She'd gie me orange baby aspirin and grease me up. I felt I'd had a complete medical tretment.

Answer 1

Yup...my Mom loved Vicks and one time when my brother was really young he woke her up as he was saying " There you go girl you'll be all better now " as he was rubbing down our dog ! Mind you she was a collie ....fun getting that out of the fur.

Answer 2

My mother used to slap Vicks Vapor-rub on our chests, back and neck whenever we had a cold. I shared a bedroom with my sister when I was a child and she was allergic to Vicks. When she had a cold I had to have it on so she could benefit from the fumes lol. Despite being able to put it into a bowl of hot water and sis getting the fumes that way she always insisted in slapping it all over me for my sister!!!
On the occasions that I have a cold now I can't use Vicks anymore because the menthol affects my asthma. I can remember the smell though and it is a huge "smell memory" from my childhood.
Apparently when I was a baby I had bronchitis and pneumonia a lot and Mother would bundle me into my big pram and walk for miles until she found some road works....there would be other mothers' with babies in prams standing around chatting whilst the tarmacadam was spread on the road. The fumes were supposed to benefit chesty babies. I still love the smell of a newly laid tarmacced road to this day!

Answer 3

Yes. I had pneumonia when I was 4 1/2. In those days, the doctor came to the house (I remember every day... I could be wrong) and can gave me a shot of penicillin. My parents made a tent over my bed out of a wool Navy blanket, and had a vaporizer going all the time on a small table by my bed. The vaporizer had hot water with Vicks Vaporub in it. This helped keep my air passeges open. Mom also rubbed my chest, (and just under my nose) with Vicks. It would feel hot and cold, but it helped me breathe. I remember a bell next to my bed for calling Mom if I needed anything.

In later years, whenever we had chest colds, Mom would rub our chests with Vapo Rub, too. It does help.

Answer 4

Your question made me smile, thinking about my sweet Grandmother. Bless her heart, she was a firm believer in Vick's salve. When I had a cold she would make a poultice, put it on my chest plus set up a "vicks" vaporizer to be breathed while sleeping. Every night, come rain or shine, right before she went to bed, she ate a small spoon of vicks. She said it "purified the body." Guess she was right, she lived to be almost 100 years old.

Funny how such a trivial thing can bring back such fond memories.

Cheers all

Answer 5

Yes, we got that treatment. Only we were too poor, or something, to get baby aspirin - we had to take an adult aspirin, but Mom chopped it up and stuck it in a spoonful of maple syrup. Do you know that there's a new over the counter remedy that has to be much worse than Vick's? It's worse because it smells like Vick's but you DRINK it! It's called Buckley's cough syrup. My daughter made me taste some. You have to have a really strong chaser handy. It smells like a baby's wet diaper and tastes like something you would clean an engine with, but she swears by it!

Answer 6

Mom would rub Vicks salve on my chest and throat then wrap me in a towel clear up to my ears. I always thought it made my cold feel so much better. I could breathe again.

Answer 7

LOL, and I still love the smell! It was however, the greasiest stuff ever, things would stick to you if you dind't at least have a towel to cover it. Nothing like getting plastered to your nightgown! As a matter of fact, i was sick, my Mom laid down to take a nap, I didn't want to disturb my mom, I I took a whole bunch of baby aspirin, I liked the taste. I remember the steampot too and the towel over your head. My grandma would take a big amount of that stuff and put it under my nose, on my top lip so I could "breath" in the....ahh..."Fumes" to get well.

Answer 8

Vicks on my chest, and a red cloth stuck to my chest!

I still love the smell of Vicks, esp when I have a cold. It is a comfort smell when I don't feel good.

Answer 9

Then feed you a glob of Vicks and wrap your neck with a wash cloth? If you were real congested, Musterole was plastered on the chest (and burned its way all the way through) ? The cure caused mor duress than the illness.

Answer 10

You forgot the codliver oil in orange juice. Vicks salve still brings back memories. Sometimes I will pick it up in a store.and just laugh.