Childhood & Sentimental memories

gillian62

I also remember getting rosehip syrup too. My youngest sister is 12 years younger than me, so I also remember collecting this and the orange for her.

I remember my dad giving me a spoonful of something that was like toffee texture on a daily basis, but I can never remember what it was. I seem to think that it was delicious.

TravellingAbuela

The toffee stuff was Virol. I used to love it!! My mum bought it from the baby clinic. It was supposed to stimulate appetite I think - or am I confusing it with Minadex? That was green and sort of orange flavoured!

[Deleted User]

I used to give my eldest DD Minadex as she was such a fussy eater along with Metatone, the thought of having to have a dose of the green stuff was enough to make her eat her food up :)

hardpressed

We never had 'clinic' orange juice at home but my friend's family did, there were 4 of them only 2 of us. We loved it when we went to their birthday parties as we got the orange juice which was the best I've every tasted. We did have Virol, which I loved, I recently went to a village musuem where they had a shop display and saw an advert fot Virol, almost wish I hadn't, it said it was made from marrow bone jelly! uck, uck, uck. We had hallibut oil drops, which mum being a softie and having been made to have a weekly dose of brimstone and treacle in her childhood, gave us on a spoonful of sugar. Happy days.

Kiwisaver_2

I remember going to the clinic for juice too, in those days our diets were a bit bereft of anything nice and the orange was a real treat. I remember it was a concentrate and being quite thick and syrupy, in a glass bottle. I have often hankered for that orange taste.

I used to like the rosehip syrup and gripe water too.

SilverBird_2

I was a post-war baby and can remember the concentrated orange juice from the clinic. It was intensely orangey and very tasty.
Delrosa Rosehip Syrup was also nice.
Both my mum and dad were big believers in "tonic" medicine and vitamins so I was well dosed with a variety of products.
Minadex and Metatone - I was given both of these and didn't mind the taste too much. (Not sure why Metatone was given to me as I always had a good appetite without this.)
Haliborange tablets - I liked these.
Virol - yuck! A large spoonful every day, and two spoonfuls if I'd been naughty. However good I'd tried to be, most days it was two spoonfuls of the stuff - perhaps it was just an excuse to give me a larger dose. Seem to recall the label saying it was malt extract and cod liver oil.
Fortunately I was never given Cod Liver oil on its own.
California Syrup of Figs - my best friend Jean was given this every Friday evening and I'd also be given this if I was sleeping over.
Vicks Vapour Rub, Vicks Inhaler and Penetrol Inhalant. A handkerchief doused in Penetrol Inhalant would be pinned to my school jumper whenever I had a cold, much to the amusement of my classmates - couldn't remove it as a note was sent from home reminding the teacher to check the handkerchief remained in place. (Fortunately I was spared this humiliation after moving on from junior school.)
Camphorated Oil rubbed onto your chest at night when you had a cough/cold.
Friar's Balsam, added to boiling water to produce inhalant vapours - you'd sit there with a towel over your head while inhaling the steam. I'd cover my mouth and nose and also hold my breath for as long as possible to avoid breathing this in.
Liquifruta Garlic Cough Medicine - my grandad's favourite cough bottle. Not on my list of favourites!
Fennings Little Healers, or Little Lung Healers, contained Ipecacaunha which helped clear your chest.
Cough bottle from the doctor or chemist - black liquid, taken by the tablespoonful - again, to clear your chest.
Green medicine from the doctor - made you drowsy/sleepy - think this may have been Phenergan or Valergan.
Gee's linctus - often added to hot water, which meant there was more of it to swallow. Ugh!
Beecham's Powders - I hated these.
Allen & Hanbury's Blackcurrant & Glycerin Pastilles - my favourites. (I keep my pins for sewing in an empty tin.)
Olive Oil & Raspberry Vinegar - think this was for coughs?
Angier's Junior Asprin. Can remember hiding these under my pillow after coming home from having my tonsils and adenoids out and getting into trouble for not taking them.

SailorSam

That was lovely orange juice, i wonder why they don't do anything like it today.
I remember one day getting taken to the clinic in the village, i thought we were getting more orange but i had to see the dentist. They had a big rubber mask they put over your mouth and it stank. I'm sure us kids got the dentists who were still learning and they needed guinea pigs to practise on.

EstherH

I can vaguely remember the orange juice I think, but definitely remember Delrosa Rose Hip Syrup.
We also had a daily dose of (I think) cod liver oil and malt. The strange thing is that I liked it. I can't stand Codliver oil now.

Ida_Notion

I'm probably too young to remember Welfare Orange Juice (at 46 I don't get to say that kind of thing as much anymore!), but I am not without memories of the things we were given to keep us healthy as kids, which mostly tasted like they were designed to do us in instead. Worst of all were Fenning's Fever Cure and Scott's Emulsion. These were given to us as a prevention rather than a cure, and one of them (Fenning's Fever Cure, I think) tasted so foul that those who survived a dose were given a sweet straight after. Extreme indeed in a household so skint that it almost never saw sweets.

Fast-forward a couple of years to the mid seventies, and my parents had found a health food shop somewhere. It's no exaggeration to say that my mum seemed to be dusting Paprika and Cayenne pepper on everything, but this was the least of our worries compared to the new daily doses. The spoonful of Blackstrap Molasses wasn't too bad, but the Cider Vinegar was so revolting that in the end we developed a routine where one of us would distract the parent 'cruel' enough to give it to us while another would tip it into a houseplant or open the bedroom window and pour it slowly down the wall. When they eventually stopped giving us it a few months later I suspect it was because funds were being diverted into replacing dead houseplants.

Oh, the guilt...

Farway

I remember the Baby Orange after the war, loved it and fortunately when mine were born I could steal some of theirs when wifey was not around

I loved Virol, possibly why I also love Marmite, and beef dripping on bread with salt & pepper