Is it possible, as an adult, to recapture the comforts of a sick day? When I had a fever or an upset stomach — mere colds were not enough to excuse one from school — I was put to bed in my room, the old black-and-white television playing at the other end. Pre-remote, it would usually stay on one channel all day, not that there was anything good to watch. No, between “Dialing for Dollars” and “Dark Shadows,” it was mostly soap operas. (I got hooked on “One Life to Live” at an early age, largely because it came on before “Dark Shadows.” I haven’t watched a soap opera since I stopped working nights, but they were good company once upon a time. I think it’s Lisa Alther who observed, in Kinflicks, that the appeal of soap operas, once upon a time, was how slowly they moved. She described a woman watching an episode that centered on shopping for decorations for a bridge party. I understand that’s changed these days.) My mother gave me Coca-Cola syrup and saltines if I was having trouble keeping food down. If I had a sore throat, there would be a snowball from the Windsor Hills pharmacy.
I have to say, lying on the sofa and drowsing to “Project Runway,” 200-plus channels at my command, just wasn’t the same. No cherry snowball. No saltines. No possibility that Stuart-What’s-His-Name was going to call me, and I would know the count and amount, maybe pocket $45. Okay, so Santino’s through to the final three, and Kara’s out. Did you really not see that coming, folks?
Under these conditions, I might as well work. So I put in my usual time this morning, as I did yesterday morning. But I wonder — what were the essentials of your childhood sick days?
My sick days were usually the same. My grandparents lived with us, so after my parents went to work, I would crawl onto my grandmother’s sofa and let her baby me. My days consisted of all soaps that aired on channel 13 – Young and the Restless and Guiding Light being the ones I remember the most.
There is one sick day I will remember above all others, though. I was in high school, a junior, and it was a few days before Valentine’s day. I went into my grandmother’s kitchen (there were 2 of everything in our house) and decided to make a bagel. It was frozen, so I put it in the microwave for a few seconds so that I could pull it apart and get it in the toaster. Silly me, when I saw that the center was still slightly frozen, I picked up a steak knife to finish cutting it apart. What I didn’t take into account was the other side of the bagel being soft, and so the knife went through the bagel and my finger as well. 3 stitches on the nerve and 7 on the outside of my finger later, I was on my way home from the hospital. I missed my Valentine’s dance at school and had to wear a cast on my hand so that I wouldn’t break the stitches on the nerve.
The kicker of it all was that I didn’t stay home because I had the flu, or even a really bad cold. I had a sinus headache, and since I was doing well in school and didn’t have any tests, my parents let me stay home that day. I shoulda just gone to school!
Bianca,
I’m reminded of our age difference because WJZ (13) was the ABC affiliate in my day.
And your story is a good cautionary tale about why frozen bagels are just wrong. <g>
Having just come off a sick day yesterday, I agree, it’s not the same as when you were in school. My Mom did the coca cola syrup too. I watched all the old movies in black and white ( my favorite was just on the other day with Robert Walker and Ava Gardner, she was “Venus”). Our family doctor used to come to our house to give us our “needle”. I remember all was well and good until you heard that front door bell ring!
Stu Kerr actually called me on my birthday one morning before I went to school. I think I won something but I’m not sure. (God, it was SOOO long ago).
Bye the way, I always told Bianca to be careful with that knife!
Them days: A cup of hot Orange Crush or Vernors Ginger Ale.
“Rita Bells Prize Movie” — Channel 7, Detroit.
A few hours listening to A.M. radio in the afternoon, and then watching General Hospital, [pre Luke & Laura.] and Dark Shadows. [I met Johnathan Frid, who played Barnabas on D.S., when I was 12 years old;a very scary man...well, to a 12 year old.]
These days: The couch, a blanket, the remote and 16oz of nuked Vernors Ginger Ale spiked with 2-4oz Black Velvet. And I unplug the phone; Rita Bell is no longer on the air so I know she ain’t gonna’ call me with the jackpot question.
–john–
One sick day from my youth stands out in my mind. I was home with a stomach virus, and I was camped out in our spare room–I didn’t have a TV in my bedroom at the time–watching JOHN GOLDFARB PLEASE COME HOME on a little black and white TV. No bed ever felt so comfortable and no movie was ever more entertaining. I would go so far as to call that a great day, were I not puking my guts out every few hours.
Ritz Crackers, Campbell’s Tomato Soup, and a grilled cheese sandwich. As often as not, when I was very young, my twin sister would be sick at the same time. We would lie in our beds and watch TV (game shows — THE PRICE IS RIGHT, THE JOKER’S WILD) on my parents’ black-and-white portable. On rare occasions — such as when Kathy and I got our tonsils out — we actually got to spend the day in Mom & Dad’s queen-sized bed, reading Cricket magazine and eating orange popsicles.
My sick days were usually spent in a fort I built in my room with a little color TV that I kept turned on the USA network because they had old cartoons like Scooby Doo and Huckleberry Hound and such. If I was too sick for a fort then it usually meant sleeping, alot. Ocassionally I’d wake up long enough to eat some canned chicken noodle soup and Vernors–the ultimate sick beverage. The soap opera in our house was The Young and The Restless.
Most of my sick days were spent on the couch in the club basement, watching the same programs as you, or reading a Childcraft book. Before mom went back to work at Fort Holabird, she would insist on watching her “stories” while ironing. She followed the Guiding Light among others. By mid-afternoon she would be out of the basement, and then I could switch to channel 5 out of Washington, and watch the Bob McAllister show before Dark Shadows came on.
The announcer on “Dialing for Dollars” was Stu Kerr. If he called a number and it rang, he would count to ten and hang up if he didn’t get an answer. Remember how his head would move in a different direction each time he counted out a number? My favorite memories of Stu were in his role as Professor Kool on Saturday morning.
Ah, childhood sick days – how oddly nostalgia catches us. Abroad, it was just books. Here in England, it was a strange 1920s-set soap called “The Cedar Tree”.
Funny you say colds didn’t pass muster. Every summer as a child I took two weeks off school for a pesistent summer cold – my mother thought it inconsiderate on the other children for me to attend. Only in adulthood did I realize that this remarkably consistent cold was hay fever.
This was my favorite thing to do, since I hated — hated! — Vick’s Vap-o-Rub, which my mother insisted on smearing on my chest, then covering with a bandanna, before I went to bed with a bad cold.
(Never mind that it worked.)
During the day, when I was alone in my room, I’d hold the open jar under a random bug crawling up the window screen. Inevitably, they’d waver, wave their antennae around frantically, and fall over into the jar.
This confirmed my suspicion that the stuff was basically poison.
Black and white TV, no remote, All My Children, pastina with butter and salt and a glass of orange juice. Oh, and three cats on the bed.
Nowadays, I always have some pastina in the pantry but making it myself somehow seems wrong.
Okay, I’ll ask: What is pastina?
Did you see how Daniel and Kara turned on Chloe!! Here I thought Santino was the evil one with his bangles and bows
Dark Shadows-I loved Dark Shadows- Angelique and Barnabas. I was caught once watching an important episode at high school- after school- before walking to afternoon Hebrew HS. I ahd to go to the vice principal.
I don’t remember too many particular sick days as a child except for the measles- and I was really sick and stayed in my bed- and no TV- because my eyes and head hurt. I do remember coca-cola syrup and St. Joseph’s chewable aspirin in the nasty orange flavor.
Now if I feel a cold coming on-I stay home. I put on Vicks vapor rub, a T-shirt and flannel PJS. I make a soup of minced garlic, sauteed with a chopped onion and veggie broth powder from Whole foods and drink vervaine tea(blue verbena). As I don’t have cable, I may read a comforting book like anything from jane Austen or watch one of my DVDs- of Jane Austen or Dirty Dancing or my tapes of Dave or Groundhog Day
All I remember offhand is Matchbox cars on the mountain roads of the blankets on my knees.
That’s when I was actually sick. Then there was the three-month period when I came up with a new way to fake a fever and watched Hogan’s Heroes every day.
I liked sick days. There were four of us, so just having my mom’s extra attention was lovely. I would get to lie on the couch with a blanket as we had no tvs in the bedroom. Nothing said “I’m not at school today” like the PRICE IS RIGHT. My mom would make toast and tea or ginger-ale, or a milkshake with a raw egg(?- I don’t know why but it tasted good) If one was really sick she’d get us an activity/coloring book!