Odd Practices and Cult Favorites

The Old Man played golf today. I had my normal game....a mixed bag of shots:

• A "Saddam Hussein"....From one bunker to another.
• A "James Joyce"...A putt that's impossible to read.
• A couple of "Barbara Streisand"s....Ugly but still working.

My golfing pals, Dennis, Jay, and Phil all carry cell-phones. I was tied to one when I worked and when I retired, handed it over to Miss Martha and said, "You are now the keeper of the flame." I've noticed that these phones do some interesting and strange things now. In addition to calls, Jay has, at times, gotten weather radar, checked forecasts, made videos of one of our golf swings, and occasionally, actually spoken on it. All this brought to mind how far we have come. I began to think of the products, habits, and culture of my childhood.

Let's start with phones. Ours had a 4 digit number. It weighed a ton and you actually dialed someone else's 4 digit number. At first it was a party line. You'd pick up the receiver to make a call and there would be the party who shared the line with you chatting away. I recall many "huff-n-puffs" and "eye-rolls" when my folks wanted to make a call. There was an actual Operator sitting somewhere. You could dial "O" and she (always a she) would answer. She would then perform whatever service you needed; connect you with a party whose number you didn't know, look up a phone number for you, or break into a "busy" line to tell them someone needed to talk to them. By far the most often used service was to place long distance calls for you. That was the only way you could make them.

We had some of what I call "cult favorites".....those products that my folks swore by and that might not have been used by many other people.

• Lifebouy Soap....This was supposed to ward off that problem no one talked about; BO. For you less sensitive types, that's Body Odor. It was a pinkish color and smelled like a doctor's office that had been contaminated with kerosene.
• Octogon Soap....This was a very strong soap for "tough dirt" on one's hands. I think my folks used it because it reminded them of the lye soap their parents made when they were young. Octogon had an aroma reminiscent of old meat.
• Packer's Pine Tar Soap....My dad introduced this one into the house. I think it had creosote or something in it. It was supposed to be good for dandruff. I don't think it worked really well because my dad's head was a cue ball by the time he was 30.
• Snow Drift.....This was a brand of shortening my mom used in baking. Pseudo lard.
• Terpin Hydrate and Codeine....The best cough medicine you could buy. I don't know what terpin hydrate is but I think it was the codeine that carried the mail. You simply walked into a drug store, asked for a bottle, signed a note book and that was it. It had an orange flavor as I recall.
• Sloan's Liniment....My dad used this on all of his achy muscles. It was a greenish brown liquid that smelled a little like wintergreen. It could heat tender skin up to match the surface of the sun. I tried it once and had to sit in a tub of ice water for an hour.
• Castoria....Branded as a "gentle laxative for children" this stuff would rival Colonoscopy prep. My mother, for some reason, firmly believed that little boys, like houses, needed a "spring cleaning". When April approached, I would hide under the porch for hours. But she always won out, and I would catch up on my comic book reading.

So, there you have it. Just a sampling of the products of my youth; the "cult favorites" and a couple of the "odd practices". I got a little catalog in the mail the other day from an outfit called the Vermont Country Store. As I thumbed through it, "Lifebouy" jumped out at me. Hmmmm....they may get a call.