Radford, Virginia Ghost Ad – Wine of Cardui

In the town of Radford, Virginia there are two excellent walls with ghost ads on them. While appreciating the aesthetics of the ads themselves is one thing, falling down the rabbit hole of finding out what the olde tyme ads are for can be its own kind of fun.

When I googled Wine of Cardui for Women, the first result pulled up a site called The Quack Doctor. Well, now. If that isn’t an interesting name. Their Wine of Cardui page says:

Woman’s modesty and ignorance of danger often cause her to endure pains and suffer torture rather than consult a physician about important subjects.

Pains in the head, neck, back, hips, limbs and lower bowels at monthly intervals, indicate alarming derangements.

Oh, for cryin’ out loud. Modesty and ignorance of danger? Alarming derangements?


Image Source: Smithsonian Museum of American History

So, basically, Wine of Cardui was $1.00 PMS wine? It was also recommended to stave off the effects of “falling of the womb.” Falling of the womb? Gah! That sounds… messy. Can you even imagine? One minute you’re throwing a bag of frozen peas in your shopping cart, the next thing you know your womb falls out. Talk about embarrassing.

Maybe I should stick to looking up ghost ad tobacco products.

Fuzzygalore

Rachael is the whimsical writer behind the 20+ year old Girlie Motorcycle Blog. As a freelance blogger, she is on a mission to inspire laughter, self-examination, curiosity, and human connection. Girlie Motorcycle Blog can be found on several Best Motorcycle Blog lists.

You may also like...

7 Responses

  1. Wendyvee says:

    “Disturbances” …. that made me shudder and laugh at the same time LOL

  2. Kathy says:

    Ah, but how could you ever have known where “Wine Cardui” would lead you?

  3. Bob B says:

    An interesting historical perspective:
    An excerpt: “elderly neighborhood ladies were the main purchasers of such medicine, its being an acceptable way to consume alcohol. Respectable women did not frequent liquor stores.”
    http://www.mum.org/cardui1.htm

  4. It’s amazing what women endured back then and still survived it all.

  5. Doc says:

    “Falling of the womb?!” Sounds almost as bad when a patient told me she had “Fireballs in her eucharist”. It took a few minutes to realize she mean “fibroids in her uterus,” which seems MUCH less painful…..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.