New Member Commentary

[irina]

Herbal remedies can also be contaminated or too strong or compounded wrong. Look how many ills were treated with castor oil which causes diarrhea. Yet it was a treatment for everything. Many old timers took purgatives to cleanse the body of impurities, poisons, etc. Emetics, laxatives, bleeding, sweating, etc. All frequently used.

[Curryong]

Yes, how do we know what had been lumped into the Garfield tea? Just because it was supposedly 'natural' and herbal doesn't mean that it was completely safe and reliable. People in those days often didn't follow instructions either. If their doctor instructed that half a teaspoon of a medicine should be taken three times a day, for example, they would gulp down a full teaspoonful each time, in order to speed up their recovery! All sorts of myths prevailed. Even when I was a child the belief was that the nastier a medicine tasted the better it was for you.

[taosjohn]

Yes, how do we know what had been lumped into the Garfield tea?

Well, the principal component was couchgrass, aka dog grass, witch grass, quack grass... if you are looking for an adulterant for your Garfield Tea to increase profits it is probably simplest just to raise the proportion of couchgrass; sawdust would likely be more expensive...

FWIW, 19th century sailing ships relied heavily on sea-biscuit ( a sort of hard bread) for carbs in the diet.

There were two schools of thought about the right way to eat sea-biscuit after a few months at sea.

You could tap it sharply on the edge of the table, at which disturbance the weevils would all run out of the biscuit; or you could just eat it, figuring that you needed the protein in the weevils anyway...

We are more finicky and less tough than our ancestors of even 150 years ago, both.

[debbiediablo]

We are also less plagued by parasites and scurvy.

[Aamartin]

Herbal remedies can also be contaminated or too strong or compounded wrong. Look how many ills were treated with castor oil which causes diarrhea. Yet it was a treatment for everything. Many old timers took purgatives to cleanse the body of impurities, poisons, etc. Emetics, laxatives, bleeding, sweating, etc. All frequently used.

Diarrhea is bad enough without factoring in the lack of a shower and having to possibly run outside or to a cellar to do it! And the clothing removal! AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

[irina]

They had chamber pots under the bed. (Plus we women cringe when we consider what Lizzie and other women went through with the "monthly sickness".)

[Curryong]

At least Lizzie (and presumably Emma) seem to have ventured down to the cellar at night to use the facilities, candle clutched in hand. What the older Bordens bedroom must have smelled like on the Tuesday night with vomit and the results of diarrhoea lingering there doesn't bear thinking about!

[debbiediablo]

Having just dealt with a sewer back-up at my daughter's house I'm guessing that a privy in the basement didn't exactly make for a Febreeze moment either.

[irina]

We can imagine poor Abby had to clean up any mess in her bedroom.

[twinsrwe]

Having just dealt with a sewer back-up at my daughter's house I'm guessing that a privy in the basement didn't exactly make for a Febreeze moment either.

OMG, Debbie, that is too funny!!!

[irina]

In one of those lovely old papers from Lizzie's time there was an article about, I think Providence, RI. EVERYONE & BUSINESSES TOO had privies in the basement. In the summer the stench was overwhelming and people were complaining and they weren't sure what to do about it. If I was any good at cut & paste I'd try to find it and post it. It was on a same page with a Lizzie article, probably August 1892. I wondered about Fall River.

[debbiediablo]

Thank you Debbie. I was trying to explain this when I mentioned my marital history, and we could go back to my parents who were business oriented. Though I am a Christian and follow Jesus' command to love everyone, I cannot love myself as Jesus said to love others. From my perspective of myself, there is no such thing as intrinsic love. It is all based on accomplishments that make me specifically, worth loving or not. So my mentality is a bit schizophrenic that way. I try to live like Jesus said but I don't feel it inside because I don't understand it. I am generous with others but not with myself.

How many times I wanted softness from parents or husbands and it wasn't there. Now in late middle age I am like them which isn't necessarily bad, but I think I have missed out on some things in this world. I think Andrew was very similar to men I married. (I am a widow BTW, not divorced.) In one marriage I never had a key to the house because pragmatically my successful businessman husband felt I was absent minded (yes), would lose the key (possible), and he didn't like some of my young friends who were kind of dead enders(true). So that Abby didn't have a key or didn't always have a key really doesn't seem all that sinister to me. Maybe I am offering a perspective on the Borden household, or not, but it is another point of view.

I was in a relationship for over 10 years that was suffocating. It changed me, for a while at least. I didn't realize how much till I ended it. I just thought I was 'maturing'. What I found out I was doing was changing my behavior to keep the peace. And while I am not some bawdy, rude buffoon who farts 24/7 and adores toilet humor, I can be rambunctious and like to have fun. Someone farts? LOL! But in this relationship I had to be much more provincial, quiet and reserved. Some of that stayed with me after I ended it, but not all.... His odd conservatism came from his religion-- and one day, in a pasta restaurant in Omaha, surrounded by our friends (other gay couples -- quite the competitive and gossipy lot) I informed him I really didn't think I could respect his intelligence anymore for believing the outlandish things he did. It took about two weeks-- but I moved out-- and 120 miles away!

That maudlin paragraph over-- I will say this. I too, identify myself as a Christian. But I am not 100% certain it is the only path to righteousness or whatever heaven is. I do firmly believe that in order to serve our higher power and mankind in general means that occasionally we have to allow others to do so by being kind to us-- so we need to accept help, offers of friendship and non-sexual love from others. We love FAR more people in a non sexual relationship manner and never tell them. We are uncomfortable with it. But I can say with 100% certainty that I do love you. I enjoy your posts here, you matter to me, no matter how slight our interactions. You are a part of my life, albeit an Internet one! Were you to show up at my front door, needing refuge, I'd let you in. I would be sad if I heard something bad happened to you and very happy if I heard something great happened for you.

I think you are the same-- and there is a lot about you to love!

I am too emotional sometimes. I was with my best friend when her daughter called her to tell her she and her husband were going to the hospital with baby #2. Her mom's phone kept dropping calls so she called me and asked me to tell her mom to come and stay with their first child, In instances like this I am very practical. 'She has to drop me off, go to her house and get her overnight bag, she will be there in about 30 minutes' and the darling girl said 'tell her to hurry'' and I began to cry. It was so sweet. She needed her mommy. I 'felt the love'. It was moving.

And now that I have made a total fool out of myself... Isn't he great!

I love you, too, Irina. I am 100% convinced that through you my daughter has found answer to her chronic health problems. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Sometimes we reap the unexpected in the most surprising places.

[RGJ]

So...taos....you a baseball fan? :-)

[Curryong]

Why not send taos a Private Message. He hasn't posted in the last couple of days. You could lure him back! 'Smile'.

[taosjohn]

So...taos....you a baseball fan? :-)

Colorado Rockies...