Uncle John’s Presents Mom’s Bathtub Reader (42 page)

Down through the centuries mothers have been healers too.

T
hroughout time, mothers have always been called upon to “make it all better,” especially when their families are under the weather. If you want to stock up your medicine cabinet with a few old-school remedies, here are a few that Dr. Mom would recommend.

Berries
—Since pioneer days, mothers have touted cranberry juice as a way to prevent urinary problems. Turns out cranberries and blueberries contain condensed tannins. These little gems, called proanthocyanidins, prevent the infection-causing
E. coli
bacteria from attaching to cells in the urinary tract. You might say that they keep the bacteria swept off your insides—a bit of cleaning would appeal to a tidy mom.

Cabbage Juice
—Imperial Roman mothers knew of an indigestion remedy that is still appreciated today—cabbage juice! The value of cabbage juice was upheld when a group of researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine found that 13 people with ulcers who drank 1 liter (about 1 quart) of raw cabbage juice every day healed six times faster than those who were cabbage teetotalers.

Chicken Soup
—So many Jewish mothers used chicken soup as a restorative for a cold that it became known as
Jewish penicillin. According to researchers at the University of Nebraska, the garlic used in the soup has anti-inflammatory powers. In addition, the broth’s heat stimulates the flow of mucus and the soup’s liquid replaces lost fluids.

Garlic
—Garlic was another remedy in a Chinese mother’s pharmacy. To cure a bout of bronchitis, mom might make a tea of steeped garlic and honey. Thousands of years later (in 2001 to be exact), a U.S. trial showed that 72 volunteers who took a daily capsule containing allicin, the main active ingredient in garlic, were one third as likely to develop a cold as the 72 who took a placebo. If they did succumb, they recovered more quickly. Put another feather in the cap of Chinese mothers, grandmothers, and their remedies

Ginger
—Ancient Ayurvedic remedies that have existed for thousands of years in India are making a popular comeback. But for many families where mothers and grandmother use traditional remedies—the ancient wisdom was never gone in the first place. Ma and grandma would often urge the chewing of ginger after a meal to ease indigestion. Ginger tea and honey were also given for a cough. Modern research has found ginger to have antinausea properties that aid digestion. And it is a powerful antioxidant with strong anti-inflammatory effects.

Green Tea
—“Better to be deprived of food for three days, then tea for one,” says an ancient Chinese proverb. For over four thousand years, with the simple act of brewing green tea for their families, Chinese mothers could combat everything from headaches to fatigue to tooth decay. But did they know they were pouring a miracle drug into the family tea cups? Scientific research hails green tea for
reducing the risk of cancer, arthritis, heart disease, and immune function problems.

Potatoes
—Thousands of years ago the ancient Incan civilization in Peru cultivated the potato. Incan mothers used potatoes as a tool for healing. Raw slices might be placed on an aching joint to help it heal. What was likely more useful was the Incan realization that cooked potatoes were a soothing bland food that helped prevent indigestion.

Tree Bark
—If a child fell ill in ancient Egypt, chances were that her mom would give her a bit of willow bark to chew on. What for? Turns out that willow bark has many of the same chemicals as our modern day aspirin. Native American moms also knew the value of tree bark. Chewing on a willow twig eased pain and lowered fever, while the gummy bark of the slippery elm tree could treat coughs and sore throats by coating and soothing irritated mucus membranes. Today, there are cough drops that are still made with slippery elm as an ingredient.

Aztec mothers also used cinnamon bark to fight illness. This bark contains oil called cinnamaldehyde that fights nausea and reduces fever. If a virus had the family under the weather, an Aztec mother could make them an atole of masa harina (corn flour) flavored with a cinnamon stick to add both spice and healing power.

The on-screen and off-screen lives of TV’s funniest mom.

I
n January 1953, a record 44 million people turned on their TV sets to watch
I Love Lucy
, America’s most popular TV sitcom. On that evening, the main character, ditzy housewife Lucy Ricardo, became a mom; her husband, bandleader Ricky Ricardo, rushed to the hospital to see his newborn son, Ricky, known thereafter as “Little Ricky.”

While that memorable episode was airing for the first time, actress Lucille Ball, who played Lucy Ricardo, and her husband Desi Arnaz, who played Ricky Ricardo, were actually in the hospital admiring their newborn second child, their own son, Desi, Jr. Life and art often blurred on episodes of
I Love Lucy
, but never more so than the day where their real son, Desi, Jr., and their fictional son, Little Ricky, were born.

Lucy’s fans were enthralled by the double whammy. Congratulations and good wishes poured in from all over the world. But Lucy’s TV life and real life didn’t completely mesh. Lucy Ricardo was always an ideal (if wacky) mom, adored by her TV kids, but the real-life Lucille went home to serious challenges that mothers face, the kind that even the best screenwriters can’t easily solve.

Just like her irrepressible TV character, Lucille Ball had the show-biz bug. Coming to Hollywood in 1933 to audition for a bit part, she stayed on and eventually moved up to feature roles in small films. She starred in so many small films that she was known as the “Queen of the Bs.”

In 1940, at age 28, the Queen of the Bs met a handsome Cuban bandleader named Desi Arnaz at RKO studios on the set of the movie
Too Many Girls
(foreshadowing, anyone?). There was instant chemistry between the two; he didn’t even seem to mind that she was wearing a fake black eye for a scene in her current film. All he could see was Lucille. Within six weeks, the two were married.

Despite their strong attraction, Desi and Lucille weren’t a heavenly match. Lucille was driven and hardworking, but remained insecure, a trait only exacerbated by Desi’s problems with drinking and womanizing. The couple immediately began a long cycle of wrangling and reconciling. Friends gave the marriage six months.

By 1951 Lucille and Desi had been together for over a decade. Together they created Desilu Studios to produce the TV show
I Love Lucy.
The steady TV work would enable them to settle down on their chicken farm in Chatsworth, California, and get busy raising a family.

Neither Desi nor Lucille bargained on having both projects collide, but when it rains it pours. Less than two months after the birth of their first child, a baby girl named Lucie, filming began on the first season of
I Love
Lucy.
Lucille’s antics as the starstruck Lucy Ricardo earned her legions of fans; by the end of the first season,
I Love Lucy
was a hit. But when Lucy found out that she was pregnant for a second time, the CBS execs got prepartum depression. This was the era when TV married couples slept in separate twin beds. Pregnancy meant that the couple had crossed the big divide between those beds. Viewers might be shocked and offended.

In a brilliant move that would make television history, Lucy insisted that her pregnancy become part of the storyline. The nervous TV executives gave in, but they substituted the word “expectant” for “pregnant” in the scripts and even hired a clergyman to ensure the morality of the episodes! Meanwhile, rather than being turned off by Lucy’s expanding “expectancy,” viewers were tuning in to set a ratings record.

Since Lucy was really pregnant, the show was able to tap into the emotions of parents-to-be. One of the show’s most touching episodes is when Lucy is trying to tell Ricky that she is expecting, but she can’t get a moment alone with him. Finally, she goes to his nightclub and makes an anonymous request for Ricky to sing
We’re Having a Baby
to an expectant father. After searching the room for the dad-to-be, Ricky sees Lucy and realizes that he may be that guy himself. He rushes over to Lucy and the two are overcome with tears. Honest, emotional moments like these made
I Love Lucy
stand above most sitcoms of the 1950s and are part of the reason why the reruns are still enjoyed today.

Back at the Chatsworth chicken farm, in real life, things weren’t going as smoothly. Lucille adored her kids, but her
work schedule meant she had to hire maids and nannies to help take care of Desi, Jr., and Lucie. There were plenty of good and loving times for the Arnazes, but the series that was supposed to help Lucille raise her family actually cost her time with her children and may have even hurt her marriage. It didn’t help that Desi wasn’t the most faithful of husbands and his problems with alcohol weren’t improving. As Desilu Studios grew larger, the pressure increased and more money was at stake with every business decision. Lucille and Desi decided to end production of
I Love Lucy
in 1957. They worked together for 2 more years on
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
, which ended in 1960. Sadly, they ended their marriage that same year.

As always, the real Lucy was a trouper. In 1968 she starred in another hit TV series,
Here’s Lucy.
This show was also a family affair and starred her two real kids as her character’s two teenagers. Working with Lucille wasn’t always easy, but the two children learned that getting laughs on TV was serious business. Problems with substance abuse forced Desi, Jr.’s early exit from the show. After much hardship, Lucille and her son worked through his problems together. Desi, Jr., not only gave up drugs, he also became a motivational speaker and worked to help other addicts recover.

Lucille continued to perform in
Here’s Lucy
until 1974. It was her last series except for a few episodes twelve years later in
Life With Lucy
, when the 75-year-old Lucille
appeared as a grandmother. As her career wound down, Lucy moved to New York to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren.

Lucille Ball faced tough trials and heartaches that she couldn’t always conquer, but like most real-life moms, she struggled to give her kids what she thought they needed. Her life wasn’t a rose garden—or a sunny TV sitcom. But as Desi, Jr., later said, “We went through some painful stages but Mom’s love was intense and tenacious.” Reason enough to love Lucille.