From an interview with Arthur Isles
Q. Your teeth. How did you take care of your teeth?
A. Well a…….I know when……very young….bakin’ soda was one of the main things… And a piece of cloth. And you rub them with your fingers, ‘cause we couldn’t afford Toothbrushes. But you know, it’s a funny thing after all though years, they started puttin’ Baking soda back in the toothpaste.

From an interview with Bill Sparks of Weymouth Falls
You had a cold or anything, they’d gather up stuff in the woods for a fever and all of that stuff. Then, the doctors, when you went to the doctors, they didn’t have no pills in those days. Oh no, they had….you’d go down here to the druggist, I remember the druggist down here…..You’d go to the doctor and he’d send you over there. And he’d have a big long shelf full…..there was herbs or whatever you call it and he’d have a bottle so long, and he’d put a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit there. Then he’d shake it up and he’d give it to you. And the bottles you used to have had little ounces marked on the side, and you’d take so much….And my old grandfather, I remember, we used to have….well today they’d call it a flu, but them days, well he’d call it just a heavy cold or somethin’ like that. He had a big gallon jug, oh gee, about that high, and they had wild cherry, ( balmgarden?), buds and Lord knows what all was in that. And when we’d get a cold, he’d say, “I’ll give you somethin’ for your cold.” He’d take those crocks and then he’d fill it with that, or drink that. And talk about somethin’ bitter! You know, and that would break the cold. They were all herbs. Everything was herbs. Them days, you know, way back in my day, kids, never thought about a pill, no, never thought about a pill.

From an interview with James Graham of Lake Midway
Q.What were some home remedies that would have been common?
A.Hmm, oh you got neuralgia you used to have neuralgia in your face sometimes or a toothache, a bag of salt, table salt and heat it and oh different, cinnamon or cloves, cinnamon I guess you’d put on a piece of batten and if you had a ulcerated, or a tooth with a cavity in it, put that in and it seemed to stop it and one time I started to walk to Centerville and one of the children was sick, someone younger than myself, mom came out and I was then quite a little ways away and she said, “you go to the store, when you go to the store you get me a bottle of syrup of squills.” That was an old remedy they used then for cough medicine or something or to put on people and I couldn’t understand what she was saying that way, so all I could hear was Circus on the hills. (Laughter) So I went up to the store, Elwood Morton then, Morton’s store, and I asked for a bottle of Circus on the hills. Well he didn’t know what I wanted, yeah after a while he came, twigged to it or he, and he got me this bottle of Syrup of Squills. Yeah. It was very sour I think, if I remember it right. It must have been something that was for a cough or some darn thing. Yep, Syrup of Squills. Circus on the hills, well I was close. (Laughter) Oh, dear.




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