File:Coast watch (1979) (20036101594).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_0 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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OIlie Moore in the O&D Grocery on Harkers Island Of kerosene, fatback and snuff Next time you get an earache, don't rush to the doctor for some newfangled antibiotic. Try an old fashioned remedy from Harkers Island. A little bit of the juice from cooked marsh mussels should do the trick. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, put a few drops of urine in the affected ear. Those are two of about 50 home remedies that anthropologist Marcus Hepburn has collected as a sidelight to his research on Harkers Island. Hep- burn believes that medical folklore can shed light on the traditional culture of a region. A few of the remedies, he notes, make use of herbs. Ground mullen leaf, for instance, is frequently recommen- ded for treating swelling from sprains. And sassafras tea is said to have the power to "break out the measles" in a person suffering from the fever which preceeds measles rash. But Hepburn has found that most remedies remembered by islanders make use of more readily available items such as kerosene, fatback and snuff. A long soak in a tub of hot water and kerosene used to be the treatment for chigger bites. "Most people remember hearing these remedies from their parents or grandparents," says Hepburn. "But few people still use them." Charlie Russell is one exception. He still swears by his remedy for babies who are having trouble teething. Cut a piece of Jerusalem oak into tiny seg- ments, he advises. Then string the pieces and tie the necklace around the baby's neck. Hepburn believes that most of the folk remedies used on Harkers Island were popular in other sections of the state, too. But some seem to have or- iginated on Harkers Island. Take Ollie's salve, for instance. The recipe remains a secret because OIlie . . . died earlier this year without pass- ing it on. Her daughter OIlie Moore remembers that the concoction re- quired cooking and contained kero- sene, lard, paragoric and a few other in- gredients. "She always called it her dream salve because the recipe came to her in a dream. I was small at the time and my daddy had a place that wouldn't heal on his foot." Mrs. Moore remem- bers that the salve cured her father's foot in a hurry. That was only the beginning. Word of the healing powers of Ollie's salve spread. "People would come to her from all over when everything else failed . . . She'd always keep one of those tin coffee cans full and anybody who came, she'd give them some," says Mrs. Moore. Sure enough, life has changed on Harkers Island. You don't know everybody you meet anymore. Not every family has a commercial fisher- man in it. You can't walk out in the back woods "of a dewy morning" to shoot your dinner. But OIlie Moore is good testimony to the fact that some things just don't change. Her roots on Harkers Island go back a long way. She was born there and her grandfather was born in Dia- mond City. To sum it up, she says, "I was born and raised right on the waterfront. I moved across the highway. And that's as far as I want to go until I go behind the Methodist Church in Vergie Mae Cemetery."

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