Bear's Den: "Open Wide And Take Your Winter Medicine"
David Walks-As-Bear
January 16, 2009
At times, a body just has to take their medicine, eh. And if you live in the area of this country where winters are hard, then suffering through this blustery season is your proverbial ´Castor Oil´. My mother found this out and has been swallowing that astringent medicinal ever since 1942. Now, the phrase "a bitter pill to swallow" comes from the olden days of medicine. For hundreds of years, a physician´s pellet for use in sickness has been known as a pill. Sure, and the word ´pill´ comes from is the Old English word, meaning ´peel´. Yep, and back in the days when garlic was used extensively in cooking and as a primary cure for leprosy and other ailments, the lowest servants on the pole, got stuck with ´pilling´ the garlic leaves, eh. It was a bad thing – every bit as unpleasant as peeling an onion and the word pill became associated with unpleasantness.
I reckon that unpleasant is an apt word, too. Heck, imagine being employed – day-in and day-out – as a garlic-peeler, hmm. I mean, these folks had ample reason to cry, and heck, the recipients of their labors probably misted-up a tad, too. That´s because in these old-time days of doctoring, the pills had no coating on them. Nope, and while the doc´s didn´t know everything, they did know that the stomach contained acid. They figured that the medicine would be ate-up in this acidic bag, and therefore, not help their patient. So, pellet medicines had to be placed in the patient´s mouth and then… allowed to dissolve there… rather than just washing it down with water. Hence, the bitter pill to swallow – get it? But a body does what a body has to, eh. You may not like it, but hey… you do it – right? And that brings me to my little connection with my mother.
My mom hails from the South. A genteel Southern lady, she´s never favored the harshness of Michigan winters. But, then, this is where she ended up, and as with all things for a two-legged traveling through life on the Earth Mother… you learn to live with your ´Lot´ in life. In the West Tennessee hills where she came from, they had winter, too. But, it sure wasn´t much of a winter compared to what the Mitten State hands out. They got snow, but it was usually only a few inches, and they got cold, too, but hardly ever the below zero stuff. Yet, back in the 1940´s, there were few jobs in the South; they were all in the north. Oodles and oodles of Southerners moved here to work and my mom´s young family was one of them. But, she never planned on staying here – no sir! And the proof of that is in the pudding. My oldest brother was born in Tennessee, the next in Michigan, the next in Tennessee, and finally, yours truly… here in the Great Lake State. Still, back then, this is where the work was and we already had extended family up here – kinfolks who could help out. But, she´d heard all of the stories about freezing temperatures, snow as high as house roofs, and blizzards for days on end, and it scared her. She didn´t want to go to Michigan. But, my pop assured her that they wouldn´t be staying – they´d just make enough money to keep them going after they got back home to Tennessee. They would be gone before fall. So, she agreed to come and this is where she got that… bitter pill to swallow… as it were.
They arrived in Michigan in the late spring and it wasn´t too bad. Still, she kept hearing the horror stories about the winters in this state and was really looking forward to fall and going back south. She was a young 19-year old wife and first-time mother, and never, ever cared for the cold to begin with. She sure didn´t want to still be here during the Severe Moon, when si-kona papoon-we, or ´hard winter´, hit. These scary stories made her even more homesick. Yep, and this was the scenario when it snowed… in August… of 1942.
She and my four-month old big brother woke up one day in late summer to six inches of fresh snow. It was a just an anomaly, an unusual weather freak, but what it did… was ´freak´ her right out. If it snows this much in August – ohhhh no! She had everything packed and ready to roll southward by the end of the day when my dad got home from work. The snow had long since melted, and in its place a dedicated determination to leave had taken up residence in my mom´s mind. But my dad had picked up the mail, and in it was his draft notice from back in Tennessee. He would have to report soon, so… she and the baby would have to stay with kinfolks here in Michigan. Yep, so there you go. Here she was, homesick, and that´s when she had to gulp down… that bitter-winter pill. Um-hmm, that´s because if you live in the North Country… this kind´a cold is just part of your medicine. Yep, and it´s sometimes… just ´a bitter pill to swallow´.
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