My mother seems to know a remedy for everything when it comes to being sick. She always has some kind of alternative medicine solution to these problems. She doesn’t always implore me to use them, but she gives me the option. I asked her what as one thing she learned from her mother in regards to alternative medicine. She told me a trick for sore throats that involves vinegar cider.

Informant: “My mother grew up in the 60’s, so her parents were all about these hippy recipes. She knew so many ways to cure anything and that’s where I get all this stuff. When we would have a sore throat, she would tell us to gargle this vinegar cider. We would gargle it over the toilet and it was disgusting. The worst part was that she made us swallow the last sip. I never made you or your brothers do it because although sometimes it worked, it is just ridiculous, I think a cough drop is the equivalent these days, so feel like you’re sucking on a cherry candy rather than gargling vinegar cider.”

Analysis: This piece is interesting because this type of folklore is diminishing quickly. With modern medicine becoming so popular and advancing so rapidly, these types of remedies will soon disappear. It is also interesting that my mother only knows all of these recipes because my grandma grew up in a specific time where these types of remedies were almost more widely used that pharmaceuticals. It may only be a few generations until this fully disappears because I know that I will not be making my children use any of these types of alternative medicine when they are sick.