Modern Hill Woman

It’s nearly March and a lot of us are experiencing spring fever; a feeling of restlessness, excitement, invigoration, and lift in mood because of longer periods of sunlight. On the other end of the spectrum, some have a feeling of laziness or listlessness associated with the warm, comfortable weather of the spring season.

At one time Spring Fever was a real disease which hit in the springtime. The name was later changed to scurvy, which was caused by depletion of vitamin C in the winter, as there were no fresh fruits and vegetables available.

Growing up as a child in the 60s, The Beverly Hillbillies was a favorite TV show. Each spring Granny Clampett made her famous spring tonic and dosed everyone in sight, critters included. It had old men jumping fences, young people wanting to mate, and Miss Jane pounding her chest and yelling like Tarzan. I’m not sure what was in Granny’s tonic, possibly a nip of moonshine, but it may have also contained sulfur and molasses.

Up until the middle of the 20th century, hill people believed each member of the family needed a good “spring cleaning” to purify the blood and make them feel better after a sedentary winter of eating mainly dried foods and salted meat and lacking fresh vegetables. It was thought that the blood thickened in the winter causing a feeling of sluggishness.

Besides the sulfur and molasses tonic, some people made a tea using sassafras roots. Burdock, dandelion, yellow root, nettle, or castor oil were often ingredients used in a spring tonic. A tastier way to dose was to eat a big bait of fresh greens, often poke.

I don’t recall mom mixing up any potion, but she did force Black-Draught down all of us. It was a blend of senna and magnesia, pruney-tasting, and was a common remedy for several ailments. Once you’ve had it, you’ll never forget the taste. The same goes for mom’s deadly sounding cure for pinworms, a spoonful of sugar with a drop of turpentine.

Tonight, the peepers are a-peepin’. I feel spring fever setting in, not the scurvy kind.