Long before urgent care clinics, pharmacies, and WebMD, families in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains relied on something else entirely: home remedies, folk medicine, and generations of mountain wisdom.
Recently uncovered pages from a local collection of Appalachian traditions reveal some of the fascinating cures and superstitions that were once common throughout Pickens County and the surrounding Upstate.
Some of these remedies may make you smile. Others might make you cringe. But all of them offer a glimpse into how our grandparents and great-grandparents navigated everyday life in the mountains.
🌿 Mountain Medicine
When someone got sick, there wasn’t always a doctor nearby. Families often turned to ingredients they already had in the house, garden, or barn.
Among the remedies recorded were:
🍯 For colds: whiskey mixed with honey, or honey and vinegar.
🧅 For coughs: onion syrup made from heated onions and sugar.
🌻 For sore mouths: yellow root tea.
🍋 For hives: rubbing the affected area with half a lemon.
🐝 For bee stings: a mud pack or chewing tobacco.
🥜 For gum stuck in hair: peanut butter.
🌞 For sunburn: sour cream or mayonnaise.
🧄 For fever: onions wrapped and placed under the feet.
🌿 For teething babies: catnip tea or even a dime worn around the neck.
Some remedies may have had a bit of truth behind them. Honey, for example, is still recognized today for helping soothe sore throats and coughs. Others were based more on tradition than science.
As one contributor noted, many mountain families simply did the best they could with the resources available to them.
🔮 Mountain Superstitions
The mountains were also rich with folklore and signs that supposedly foretold luck, misfortune, or future events.
According to local beliefs:
🐈 A black cat crossing your path brought bad luck.
🐇 A rabbit crossing your path brought good luck.
🪞 Breaking a mirror meant seven years of bad luck.
🪑 Leaving a rocking chair rocking by itself meant a death in the family was coming.
👂 If your right ear burned, someone was talking about you.
🤚 If your right hand itched, money was coming.
🤚 If your left hand itched, money was going out.
👟 Placing shoes in front of your bed invited bad luck.
📅 Friday the 13th was considered unlucky.
💤 Falling in a dream and hitting the ground meant you would die.
One particularly interesting belief warned people to sprinkle salt around their doorstep to keep away the “Rootman” or “Rootwoman”—mysterious figures connected to folk healing, herbal knowledge, and mountain magic.
🏔️ More Than Just Old Stories
These traditions weren’t simply entertainment. They were part of daily life throughout Appalachia.
The Upstate’s folk beliefs grew from a blend of Cherokee traditions, Scots-Irish customs, German folklore, English superstitions, and African-American folk practices that mixed together over generations.
Today, these remedies and superstitions serve as a living record of a different time—when neighbors shared cures over a fence, grandmothers knew dozens of herbal treatments, and every family seemed to have a few unusual beliefs passed down from previous generations.
Whether you think they were nonsense, wisdom, or something in between, they remain an important part of our local heritage.
👇 Which of these remedies or superstitions did you hear growing up? Did your grandparents have any that aren’t listed here? Share them in the comments!
