16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, June 21, 1911: Got stung twice by a bumble bee this
afternoon. I didn’t feel too well. Her middle-aged
granddaughter’s comments 100 years later: I wonder if Grandma
used baking soda to reduce the pain and swelling caused by the
sting. When I was a child my parents always treated bee stings
by first gently pulling the stinger out if it had broken off and
was embedded in the skin. Then they’d mix together a couple
tablespoons of baking soda and a little water to make a paste.
The paste was then thickly spread over the sting site. The
baking soda home remedy has always worked well—and when my
children were growing up I continued to use it to treat bee
stings. Filed under: Health