Grandma's Attic Find

Rawleigh's Liniment Internal

When I was getting my grandparent's home ready to sell several years ago, I found so many interesting items.  I want to start sharing some of my finds with you through my blog posts. I will be calling this series "Grandma's Attic Finds".  

I remember Grandpa and Grandma Burnette always talking about using liniment for everything.  Many was the time that I heard them say that it was shame that you couldn't buy it anymore.  I think that after you read the ingredients label, you may see why it was no longer available!

Wow, let's look at the list of active ingredients:  48% ALCOHOL!  Wooo-WEE!  Take a dose of this and no wonder your aches would go away!  And just look at the dosage:  1/2 to 1 TEASPOON.  What a tiny amount! I wonder if that dosage was always followed?

Look at the other ingredients:  Capsicum, Camphor, Sassafras Oil, Hemlock Oil, & Spearmint Oil. 

Capsicum:  oh yeah, this is what gives hot peppers their fire! It is a circulatory stimulant and analgesic. 

Camphor:  It has a very strong odor.  This is where Vicks Vap-o-Rub gets it smell.  Also believed to suppress coughs, and repel snakes. 

Sassafras Oil--sassafras has been used to make a tea.  The extract was used as a flavoring in root beer. The FDA now frowns on sassafras since it has been linked to various cancers.

Hemlock Oil--good for coughs and tightness in the chest.

Spearmint Oil--used as a flavoring in  food, chewing gum, and toothpaste and it has some anti-fungal abilities. Also used to treat stomachaches and gas. 

 I just love that it is good "For Man or Beast"!

I can see where this would probably feel really great if massaged into achy muscles and sore joints.  I have used modern day medicines that contain some of these same ingredients.

I would NOT be as enthusiastic about taking this internally!

Do you need a dose today?


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Thanks to information from Dave & Doris, I have found that the Rawleigh Company is still in business!  Visit their website.   They have everything from liniment to salve to cooking extracts and spices! They even sell pie filling and gravy mix!
Copyright 2012--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean. 

Mystery Item

Can you identify this mystery item?

Leave your best guess in the comment section below.

The correct answer and all comments will

be published on Wednesday.

Copyright 2012--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean. 

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!  

It does not seem possible that you have been gone for 11 years.

My Daddy was always willing to do anything and I do mean ANYTHING to help me,

but the one thing he would never do was tell me what I should do when 

I had an important decision to make.  He would discuss it with me,

but he would always tell me that I had to make my own decisions,

be they good or bad, so that I would learn.

At the time, I would be very frustrated because I might not

know what decision to make, but I am SO glad that

he didn't tell me what I should do.

I made some pretty bad decisions sometimes, 

but I learned to look at an issue from all sides 

before making a decision.

Thank you for that gift, Daddy.

Dads are special people.  Be sure to give yours a hug today.

Me & Daddy

Daddy, Rosie, & me

The last photo I have of Daddy & me together
(That is Grandma Burnette in the pic with us.)
ca. 1993

Copyright 2012--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean. 

Folk Speech

beestlings or beeslings--The first milk that a cow gives after birthing her first calf.  It was believed that pouring this milk over the rump of the cow would make her a good and docile milch cow. (I have never heard this word used, have you?)

slab-sided--having flat sides like slabs, tall & lank.  "You better start feeding that horse better because he sure is slab-sided." (I can remember my dad using this one all of the time.)

draggletailed--Untidy;  bedraggled. "You sure are looking all draggletailed after taking care of those kids all day!"

pissabed--The dandelion flower.  Children are warned not to pull it because it will make them wet the bed at night.

draw-bar--A bar or set of bars in a fence which can be drawn back to allow passage. "I hope that you remembered to secure the draw bars so the horse doesn't get out."  (I had not thought about this word in years, but when I was growing up, I had a horse named Black Beauty.  Yes, I know....I was not very original!  To get to the barn, I had to lower the drawbars to get through the fence to go ride.  Black Beauty had a foal named Midnight and she was VERY talented at rubbing against the drawbars until they fell to the ground, then Midnight would show up at the front porch where we were all sitting. Grandpa had to finally put removable pegs into each bar to keep that horse in the field! That horse would follow my Grandpa around like a dog when he was in the fields too.)

belly-aching--whining and complaining.  "She just needs to stop all of that belly-achin' and be content with her life." (I think that just about everyone in my family used this term!)

monack-- (moonack)--A woodchuck or groundhog.  (I have never heard this word used either!  Have you?)

nubbin--A small or imperfect ear of corn.

 Copyright 2012--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean.

Folk Superstitions

Are you familiar with any of these sayings?

If you shiver someone is walking on your grave.


If scissors fall and stick up in the floor, it is a sign that someone is coming.


It is bad luck to plant gourd seed. You should just throw the seeds at random to come up.


You can't grow good gourds unless you cuss them.


The more you cry, the less you piss.  This is said to children that cry too much.


Never cross a funeral procession or count the followers or you will have bad luck.


Sneezing three times in succession is a sign of a stranger coming.


Stumbling on the sidewalk is a bad sign.  Stumbling when going up steps a good one.


To put up an umbrella while in the house will bring bad luck.


To rock an empty rocking chair is bad luck.

Copyright 2012--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean.