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The Terrible Taste Of Castoria Brings Back Strong Memories For Many Seniors During Reminiscence Program

Memory Detecting

Our Memory Detecting Reminiscence Program has hundreds of vintage artifacts that we use to prompt memories. We have hundreds of metal artifacts from metal detecting but we also use hundreds of vintage bottles. All these artifacts are used to prompt senior memories. As a metal detectorist you often come across “bottle dumps.” As you are metal detecting an old home or farm site you may come across an old Out House where trash was often discarded. Other times you see a bit of trash on the surface which is a good indication that just below the surface is a bottle dump. Sometimes these bottle dumps can go down as much as 7 feet or more. Its very exciting to dig up these bottles because you never know what bottle you will find next. The vintage bottles found include ink bottles, liquor and beer bottles, common household bottles, sodas, milks, and many different types of medicine bottles. Embossed medicines and their history are some of my favorite items to find.

One medicine that your seniors will likely have a strong reaction too is CASTORIA. Charles Henry Fletcher started Dr Fletcher’s Castoria in 1872. It was a Laxative with a key ingredient being Senna a stimulant. It was a VERY Popular medicine during the 1930’s thru the 1950’s. Interestingly you can still see remnants of the old vintage CASTORIA advertisemnts on old buildings in and around New York City.

During our reminiscence program this medicine will always create an abundance of reactions from the seniors. The most common reaction is “Yuck”. Apparently Castoria did not taste very good. I have had more than one senior tell the group that their parents threatened any bad childhood behavior with, “If you don’t behave I will give you the Castoria!”

This is the beauty of using these artifacts to prompt various memories. Sometimes what happens is that one senior will share a story and then others will have a similar or shared experience that they will share. It is my goal to simply get out of the way, and let the group share these experiences and memories. I will often make notes of these interesting stories. After doing dozens of these programs I can honestly say that I have heard new and interesting stories on each and every program.

What medicines do your seniors recall? Who gave them the medicine? What common medicines did they give their children? Do they recall the taste or sometimes the smell? You never know where the conversation and memories will take you.

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Interesting Memories Surfaced

Memory Detecting

The analogy of digging artifacts from the ground and then using those artifacts to “dig up” memories from seniors during the reminiscence program is striking. The beauty of hunting for these artifacts is you never know what you will discover. The beauty of conducting the remiscence program is you never know what memories will be surfaced. In a recent program at Laurel Ridge in Plymouth MA that was exactly the case. This particular program had the group revisiting the past. The memories effortlessly flowed from a time when they were very young during World War Two.

As is usually the case the memories were initially triggered by one artifact, in this particular case a Mason Jar. The discussion then turned to canning and Victory Gardens. Victory Gardens (Home Vegetable Gardening) during World War Two were fairly common as nearly 50% of the United States population participated in this form of self reliance. At this time in the United States the major stressor was the newly disrupted food supply chains, and the increasing need to feed the troops. This encouraged citizen participation and patriotism as families, to include children, were now actively involved in the war effort.

Interesting memories were shared. One women in the group said she remembered how she sold crafts for the war effort. She took on the task of painting match boxes with birds and flowers, and then selling them to her “wealthy neighbors.” The money she collected was donated to the war effort by her family.

The memories continued to flow with the recycling effort. The seniors recalled collecting paper, gum wrappers, and other metals and rubber items at home. Families even donated pots and pans and children sacrificed metal toys. They remembered scouring their homes for these items to support the troops. The most fascinating story for me came when an 87 year old gentlemen recalled how he and his family actually saved the fat from cooking and delivered this fat to a local collection site. The fat from cooking that was collected was used for the war effort to make bombs. The science behind this after some research is that one pound of waste fat equaled 1/10 of a pound of glycerine. Eventually this equaled 1/3 of a pound of gunpowder. This is something that I had never heard of. Wow.

These are fairly common examples of how one artifact (Mason Jar) is a hub to various memories. I have learned to say less and listen more through the years when doing these programs, after all evoking memories is the goal. The artifact is the prompt to the memories and a few open ended questions can lead to some very interesting discussions and memories. I LOVE hearing these stories and can’t help but think how many of these seniors stories are soon to be lost if we don’t capture them. One of the tools the Memory Detecting Membership Program offers is the creation of the seniors Lifetime Memory Journal. These are the types of stories that a family would love to hear, and what a great opportunity it is if we can help capture and document them.

For more information and to join the Memory Detecting Reminiscince Membership Program simply click the link below.

www.memorydetecting.com