Turpentine – Medicinal elixir

Turpentine and petroleum distillates such as coal oil and kerosene have been used medicinally since ancient times, as topical and sometimes internal home remedies. Topically it has been used for abrasions and wounds, as a treatment for lice, and when mixed with animal fat it has been used as a chest rub, or inhaler for nasal and throat ailments. Many modern chest rubs, such as the Vicks variety, still contain turpentine in their formulations.

My junior year, the evening before state solo and ensemble contest, I was washing dishes and dropped a glass in the sink. The tops of my fingers were sliced right across the tips – where I need them for piano and saxophone. Mother grabbed a towel and held my fingers as I hit the kitchen floor (my own blood knocks me out cold). I woke up, looking at Mother hovering over me. She grabbed the turpentine from the cabinet, poured it into a small cup and dipped my fingers into it.

The next day, I was playing piano and saxophone in seven different events – as though nothing had happened the evening before.

Yes – turpentine! And for all my college friends who laughed at me when I explained that cows lying down in the field meant rain was coming… just try the turpentine! It works!

Our neighbors across the street (in Elwood, Indiana), Luther and Ida Myrick, were from the hills, hollers, dales, and woods of Kentucky. Luther had been a caller for the Jellico Square Dance in Jellico, Tennessee. Ida’s grandmother had grown up with Abraham Lincoln near Hodgenville, KY, and he sent her a signed card d’visit when he was president.

And how many of you thought you would not get a history lesson out of this one???

They had a ton of mountain remedies which we swore by, and still do! The only thing I never tried was Luther’s homemade whiskey for a chest cold. Ida swore by it!

So turpentine…. as Ida always told us, “Always put it on a fresh cut. It won’t hurt. But if you put it on an old cut you’ll be screaming and pissing like a race horse bit by a storm fly.”

PS. And for the family? I am sure you understand why Grandpa Virgil was mentioned in the subject line!