| Remember the days of old when Grandmother | | | | healing practices, curative uses of herbs, and other |
| strapped a warm mustard pack to our congested | | | | medicinal "family secrets" were stealthily guarded and |
| chests when we had a cold? Or used a warmed tea | | | | passed down from one generation to the next. |
| bag to rid pink eye, a clove of garlic to stop an | | | | Of course, some of yesteryear's touted cures were |
| earache, or prepared a mixture of chaparral and olive | | | | not truly cures at all. Superstition and myth "remedies," |
| oil as a cure for itchy skin? I do. | | | | without any practical application, crept into the mix. Little |
| Distances between townships, limited funds, and the | | | | by little and through the years, suspicion as to the |
| lack of readily available medical professionals and | | | | validity of any natural, herbal remedy began to take |
| facilities all dictated that a woman be not only a wife, | | | | root. |
| mother, and housekeeper, but doctor as well. Folklore | | | | |