Grandpa Abe’s cure for the Acne

The only Grandpa I knew was my Grandpa Abe who married my Dad’s mom and took on the responsibility of her 3 kids and his own one. He was a big imposing man with very large hands. My dad said when he was 18 years old Grandpa took both of my dad’s wrists in one hand and made him holler Uncle. An athlete in his youth in Kansas he pitched a good baseball game.

My Grandpa Abe, me and Bobby G., circa 1951

When my dad was a teenager the subject of acne came up. Grandpa Abe said he had the sure fire cure for the Acne. My dad passed this on to me when I was very small and I surely had no idea what the “Acne” was at that time.

Grandpa Abe explained the process in this way. You had to find a healthy tree of any variety and then look for a sturdy branch. You then climbed up into the tree and with a brace and bit ( this was before drills ) you bored a hole in the sturdy branch. Then you laid down on the branch and carefully stuck your hair through the hole from the bottom up, You had to have more hair than I do now. Then you put a cork into the top of the hole with your hair sticking out of the hole. The cork would therefore hold your hair to the hole. The final step was to jump out of the tree. Grandpa swore this was the sure fire way to cure the “Acne”.

I didn’t understand it then because I didn’t know what acne was and I sure as hell never wanted to get it bad enough to have to try Grandpa Abe’s remedy when I got to be a teenager.

I suppose I should follow with a disclaimer: Don’t try this at home the above is done by only the very desperate or stupid, don’t know the stats of which group had any success.