I expect most folk at one time or another have received an e-mail, usually containing a sentimental story or poem, and been asked to send it on to 10 friends. Often there’s the promise that, if you carry out the request, good fortune will come to you. I’ve been giving this some thought.

Let’s assume that I’ve gone completely batty and I send off one of those e-mails to 10 people. If each of them send it to 10 friends, that means 100 folk so far are involved. If all those continue the scheme, the number of people will have reached 1,000. And so on. Theoretically 10,000, even 100,000 folk could have taken part within a few days.

And all of them enjoying good fortune!!! Wonderful!!!

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Continuing reminiscing about medicines we got when we were children, I’ve been reminded of one or two that I had forgotten.

The cure for a sore throat was gargling with salty water, but I vaguely remember getting some kind of warm poultice put round my neck.

Dock leaves were used for nettle stings. And a small bottle of iodine was always produced for a cut, a small wound or a grazed knee.

I was reading in another blog that bleeding from small cuts could be arrested by the application of greaseproof paper with butter spread on it.

For some children the cure for constipation was blackberries and for others raw or cooked onions.

It seems that a mixture of sulphur and treacle was given once a week to many children, and that’s something I hadn’t heard of.

Also new to me was brown paper sprinkled with vinegar and pepper applied to the cheek to combat the toothache. In our family the cure was the application of oil of cloves to the gum, but I don’t think it was all that successful.

I’ve just remembered another bottle on the medicine shelf - Sloan’s Liniment, for aches and pains.

Finally, Jean has been telling me about sugarolly water which her father used to make. A mixture of liquorice sticks and water was put into a lemonade bottle and given a really good shaking. It was put aside for a week and apparently one could tell from its black colour whether it was ready or not. Jean says this was a real treat and one that she always looked forward to.

She remembers this rhyme -

Sugarolly wah-ter, black as the lum,
Gaither up peens an’ ye’ll a’ get some.

Translation -
Sugarolly water, black as the chimney,
Gather up pins and you’ll all get some.

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Norman the Nerd says, “Hi there! Did you know that in 2010 there were 152 million blogs? Well, there’s going to be one more on Saturday when COME SURF THE NET begins. Don’t forget the address
http://comesurfthenet.blogspot.com

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View in Suffolk by Thomas Gainsborough 1727-1788

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I discovered this amazing YouTube yesterday - André Rieu and his Orchestra with special guest Akim Camara



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Thanks to http://www.graphicshunt.com for the cartoon image.

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