My sweet, loving mother had a hidden side to her not seen by most. When I caught a cold and stayed home from school she became uncharacteristically evil and forced me to endure a cruel attempt to relieve the symptoms. She put a scoop of Vicks VapoRub in a bowl of boiling water and covered the bowl and my head with a towel. She believed breathing the steam rising from the mixture of camphor and eucalyptus would clear my sinuses allowing me to breathe easier and get some relief. Oh how I hated the vile smell. It is the same horrid goo that coroners and CSIs use to cover the intolerable smell of rotting flesh, but no odor could be worse.
Although today I get winded climbing 3 steps, back in 1958 when subjected to VapoRub steam, I could hold my breathe a freakishly long time, lift a hidden corner of the towel and breathe clean air. I never once inhaled a single bit of the noxious fumes. I then smiled and lied to my mother. “Wow, I feel better” and then suffered the congestion in silence believing it was the lesser of two evils.
Vicks, to your vile smelling VapoRub I extend my middle finger and say as long as there are children willing to endure the discomfort of cold symptoms we will resist and emerge victorious though having to breathe through our mouths to sustain life.
This is just one of the tortures I was forced to endure from Mommy Dearest. Other indignities I was subjected to included mandatory eating of vegetables, limiting my television viewing and to get dessert, complete my homework every night! I stand here today, living proof you can survive the cruelest of tortures and still make it through childhood.