THOSE PILLS: Jim Pringle remembers those cod liver oil pills
well: “I remember the pills being passed out and everyone lining up
at the drinking fountain. Usually by the time I got there the
bottom of the fountain was covered with the little yellow
foul-tasting pills. This was at the Second Ward School during the
late ’40s and early ’50s.”

Cod liver oil, he says, were supposed to be an overall cure-all
and preventive, high in vitamins A and D.

Helen J. Johns-Richardson of Bradford adds, “Cod liver oil is
probably the only source of Vitamin D we have to take on those cold
dark winter days. The only other source of Vitamin D is the sun
which we don’t get much of in the wintertime.

“So break out that bottle of the good oil (find a good source)
or get the pills. Here’s to less sniffling and better health this
winter.”

We also heard from Marine Corps Master Sgt. John Harper of
Bradford who said cod liver oil was distributed to children in the
1950s because it was high in iodine – and was more palatable than
iodine pills.

Scientists had believed it would help children’s liver and
kidneys, and also would be effective in keeping down contamination
from plutonium and uranium.

This was the post-World War II era, of course, when fear of
nuclear fallout was at its peak.

Harper noted that even first aid kits at that time contained
iodine pills because it was believed they would help remove
contamination for someone exposed to radiation.

TODAY’S QUERY: Reba Anderson, a student at Smethport High
School, needs your help. For one of her classes, she is doing a
project on the Smethport Airport which had been on East Valley
Road. If you have information or photos, you can reach her at this
email address – rebaanderson@smethporthistory.org

TODAY’S QUOTE: “The distance between banning the burning of
flags and requiring the burning of books may be much shorter than
we think,” said Dan Hagen, journalist and educator, Sullivan (Ill.)
News-Progress, 1995.