I have the good fortune of doing a short stint on 92.7 Mix FM on Tuesday afternoons with Sami and Ben. We have a few laughs and toss up different topics – one of which really hit home.
It was about the magic sponge. What the hell is that? You may well ask. Baby boomers would know. Others quite rightly wouldn’t.
The magic sponge was a large sponge in a bucket of water that was used by trainers at football games when someone was injured. These days, sanitised water bottles and qualified staff act as player support. But back in the ‘magic’ days, it was a bucket of water, a sponge and some smelling salts.
Why was it called ‘magic’? Well, simply, it was used for all sorts of injuries. When a player went down, out would come the sponge, rubbed on a leg, arm or head, wiping off blood or whatever. Most of the time, the player would get up and continue playing – just like magic.
The same water would be used on multiple people with different injuries. Maybe the bucket was replenished at half-time. Amazingly, most of us survived. That’s probably why it was called ‘magic’.
The conversation reminded me of some of the things that we copped back in the day – like when you were going out and your mother would spit on a hanky and wipe a mark off your face… having to drink Epsom salts for any number of ailments, including constipation, or having to bathe in it as well… peroxide on open cuts that would bubble away, killing germs and, surprisingly, not killing the kid… Checking your bum at night for worms… rubbing plants on your warts.
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Another was a poultice applied to an infected sore. God knows what was in it. I clearly remember getting poultice on a boil on my leg which was supposed to draw out the badness. That didn’t work. So, dad decided to cut out the core of the boil. That got rid of the boil but left a nice scar and a fair few tears. Bloody hell!
Just on dad (and slightly off topic), I clearly remember the haircuts he would give. He had a set of hand clippers like shears but for people (well, little fat kids who couldn’t run away). The blunter they were, the more it felt like he was pulling the hair out. We mostly survived.
But, I must say, while the magic sponge was outstanding, it wasn’t that ‘magic’: it couldn’t fix my nose.
Ashley Robinson is Mets Caloundra CEO, chairman of Thunder Netball and a lifetime Sunshine Coast resident.
