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Show j ( Common cold cure still eludes us i p.fj. blab By MARCELLA WALKER The yearly cold can be the pits. I am lucky in that I usually only have one cold a year. It comes in January, February or March every year. It usually consists of a runny nose, maybe a cough, and lots of sneezing. I seldom have a sore throat or fever or any of that kind of stuff. As a general rule all the symptoms come at once and in about 10 days the whole thing is gone. This year is different. I got the runny nose two or three weeks ago. It lasted about one week and that is all there was. One week later, to the day, I got a cough. That is all there was. About four days later I became hoarse. This is a new wrinkle. The same day that I became hoarse, the runny nose came back. I was thrilled. However, now it appears the entire thing is on its way to recovery and I'm sure glad that it is. I have occasion to talk to quite a few people in my job and it seems that a whole lot of people have this creeping crud. (That is what we called the flu and its symptoms back inthel950's.) Some people are saying that they are alright as long as they stay on their medicine. Others are saying that they wonder if they should be on some medicine. For the most part, medicine won't cure this stuff. It may ease some of the symptoms but it still takes the full time for the disease to run its course. And it likes to stay around. cold is the most elusive of diseases to treat It comes in a variety of styles and is not a respector of persons. It'll hit anybody at anytime and feels no remorse. We can cure many forms ot cancer. We can put a man on the moon. We can use laser beams to do the most delicate of surgery. We can build computers that can do nearly everything. We can put everything but the kitchen sink into orbit around the earth. We can harness nuclear energy. But no one can cure the common cold. This would lead you to believe that the common cold is not so common after all. It is rather elite, in fact. It cannot be cured. Most things can be. When I was a child and things were much simpler, my mom would put me to bed, rub my neck with Vicks or Mentholatum, tie a cloth around my neck to keep the warmth from those salves in, and bring me some weak tea. Warm tea felt good going down and if you got her to put enough sugar into it, it didn't taste too bad. Soup is for colds. The warm steam rises from the soup and helps to clear your head and the warm broth feels good going down the throat. You could soak a few broken pieces of soda cracker in the soup, too, and that was delish. Another thing we used to get when we were ill was what we called milk toast. Mom would heat the milk and pour it over toast that had been broken into bite size pieces. She added a little sugar and cinnamon and that was wonderful. The toast could not scratch the J v and it was yummy. I cannot believe it, but I - J never made that treat for a children when they were ill. was I all those years? ' v I think it was because the do; 1 always said to stay away from products when the children were and so that eliminated any toast. What did they do before Kleete What did Adam and Eve do ? they got a cold? There are t " enough hankies in the world ; j( handle a typical cold through i ' seige. d What did they do without aspfe F take away the aches and A What did they do without n c. sprays to clear the airways? I suppose chicken soup haste k around as long as man and it It n colds to feel better. Juice haste tr around as long as man and ittas cj( good, if your taste buds art j working during the cold whichs ft too likely. aii Your smeller does not work dr. a cold either. That is why peoples weight with a cold. They or. either taste nor smell food so i Q eat it. - Until someone comes along t ' cure for the common cold (act Co there is a cure and it is called1; " with it for ten days to two m dot and you are cured), I guess ml H look forward to the annual coldi pat all the fun that it brings. In: con meantime, pass the Kleenex! too For some people it decides to come back for a second time around. It is definitely no fun. One of the more interesting phenomenon of having a cold is the advice that comes from so many sources. You are told to take a whole lot of Vitamin C. Drink lots of liquids. Take aspirin. Get lots of rest. Take decongestants (they make you groggy and slow which works great if you don't have to keep right on working). Stay away from milk products. Drink chicken soup. Put Vicks on your chest. Don't put Vicks on your chest. Use an inhaler. Use nose drops. Use a nasal spray (but not longer than three days) . And the list goes on. Everyone knows that the common |