I can remember the baker coming with a white mask on his face.
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"That's a mask to keep out the 'flu germs," said Mum.
The influenza epidemic that swept Australia after World War I was now creeping into the country regions and towns like Crookwell.
People said that soldiers returning from the War had brought the germs back from Europe and the Middle East.
It was a virulent strain and proved fatal to many victims. People took to wearing face masks but there was much controversy as to whether this was of much use.
It was known the deadly virus could be spread by coughing and sneezing. But it is doubtful whether we contemplated the baker's unwrapped and much-handled bread could have been a potent source of infection.
We, like many other families in the district, had our share of it.
I remember the debilitating effects of the sickness, too weak to go to school, too sick to eat.
Then trying to eat some fried bacon and the dreadful taste it left in my mouth.
For years afterward when I caught a cold I could not eat bacon because of that haunting bad taste.
The adults suffered most in the 'flu epidemic. Farm work had to go on. The cows had to be milked, the cream had to be separated, the pigs and calves fed.
They dragged themselves around, as Dad said "sick as a dog" and slumped down with fatigue when they could.
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Eucalyptus was our stand-by cure.
We sniffed in the fumes from a few drops on a handkerchief to help clear our breathing. We swallowed a drop on a spoonful of brown sugar. We rubbed our chest with a liniment of eucalyptus and olive oil.
There was always someone to be seen head under a towel over a basin inhaling eucalyptus fumes from a bowl of steaming hot water.
And to ease the aches and pains we took a patent medicine called 'Painkiller' which, according to the instructions, was guaranteed to cure just about anything from housemaid's knee to snakebite.
There were not many homes without a bottle of 'Painkiller' on the mantelpiece.
Whatever the reason we all managed to survive the 'flu at our place, as did all our neighbours.
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