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.
7 Replies to “Radford, Virginia Ghost Ad – Wine of Cardui”
“Disturbances” …. that made me shudder and laugh at the same time LOL
Right?! The language is ridiculous!
Ah, but how could you ever have known where “Wine Cardui” would lead you?
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
It’s amazing what women endured back then and still survived it all.
“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…..
None of these sound any good! 😆