stump-water-cures-freckles

“Being fair-skinned and blond, I freckled easily in the summer sun. I tried everything that was purported to be a cure for freckles—everything but one cure Aunt Mossie told me about. Mama’s sister Mossie married Dad’s brother Squire, and our two families lived fairly close to each other. One day, my cousins were teasing me, pretending to count my freckles. Aunt Mossie said that if I could find a tree stump with a hollow in the top where rainwater had collected, and bathe my face in the stump water, my freckles would disappear. It took a while but finally I found a stump with rainwater standing in it. But I was so repulsed by the ugly, scaly growths in it and the yellowish red color of the water, I could not bring myself to put that stuff on my face. I have some freckles to this day.”

“My Appalachia A Memoir” by Sydney Saylor Farr

—-

I don’t remember what age I was when I realized I had freckles sprinkled across both cheeks and over the hump of my nose. I went to Granny and complained they were ugly. I asked her if I could get rid of them somehow. I was only fishing for her to feel sorry for me, I knew I couldn’t get rid of the freckles.

Granny looked down at me and touched my face. She said “Why you don’t want to get rid of them they’re pretty and you didn’t know it but they’re angel kisses.”

For whatever reason I bought the angel kisses bit and never worried about my freckles again.

Granny came from a family of red headed freckled folks. Neither Paul, Steve, nor I inherited the red hair, but I managed to get the freckles. As I look back, I imagine it pleased Granny to see the freckles on my face and know they came from her family.

Tipper

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17 Comments

  1. I had no freckles when young but old age spots my liver has sure stopped ; nothing can change brown spots as I found

  2. I always wished I would have had freckles and dimples just because I thought they were cute. Still think they are cute… and natural red hair is so pretty..but thankful for how God made me. Freckle-less, and brown hair like my daddy, even though I whacked it mostly off over a coal bucket one day on Easter Weekend (right before pictures were to be taken.) Was aiming for a crew cut like daddy. Oh Boy , didn’t care much for fly swatters after I became the fly . I think I invented the pixie hair cut. Nevertheless I had freckles on Halloween dressed as a hobo , very nice black ones. :), as for warts, we were told you got them if a frog peed on ya, Haha, tried real hard to not let that happen .

    1. I longed for dimples, too, SusieQ, and I went around holding pencils poked into my cheeks for what seemed like hours at a time (surely only minutes). No results other than a black dot of lead on each cheek. Sigh.

      1. Ann, I can understand ,and relate…I use to try to tape my cowlick down, the one that always made my bangs stand up on one side in a not enjoyed fashion…. to no avail ,only the loosing of half the hair trying to pull the tape off .

  3. Tipper,
    If folks want a daily, fresh view of anything Appalachia, they should subscribe to Blind Pig and the Acorn. It has about anything you’d want, including good food and recipes and all the Appalachian Folklore you can handle. There’s Pickin’ and Grinnin’ in the kitchen, with some of the old timey playing and singing. And if you want to, the audience can chime in. …Ken

  4. Tipper, Both my grandmother and my father had red hair and freckles. I was so used to seeing freckles they didn’t look strange to me. I have a few even though I have dark hair, and my son has blondish-brown hair and freckles. I don’t ever remember trying to get rid of them or hearing anyone in our family complain about them.

  5. Grandma Cora told me that fresh cow poop packed on your face and left to dry (like a mud mask) would take off freckles. I never had freckles but had friends who did. I never could convince any of them to try Grammaw’s remedy.
    I milked a cow when I was young and would occasionally got swarped through the face with a freshly saturated tail. Maybe that’s why I never had freckles.

  6. Our daughter had them when she was young. She constantly wanted to wrestle. I would get her down and tell her I was going to kiss her freckles off. I would kiss while she screamed. She doesn’t have them now so I guess it must have worked.

  7. And I always envied the girls with freckles and wanted them so much! My sister told me that if I held my face over a glass with Coke in it, the sparkling liquid would make freckles! I didn’t like Cokes, but I bought some and tried her method several times. Of course it didn’t work. I was so disappointed.

  8. 2 of my children have freckles. We did a read aloud of Anne of Green Gables & Anne was described as “a freckle faced witch of a child”, which brought on teasing to my sensitive girl. I told her a face w/out freckles is like a night w/out stars & she’s always held on to that, mentioning it 3 years later to someone else who didn’t like their own freckles.

  9. I remember a friend of mine in high school had red hair and freckles and she would put lemon juice on her face and arms at night. She still had freckles when she passed two years ago. If God wants you to have freckles I guess you are going to have to learn to live with them. I always thought they were kind of cute on some girls.

  10. ♫She’s got freckles on her but……………………..she’s pretty ♪♫

    I knowed somebody would mention this little ditty so I thought I’d try to be first!

  11. I seem to recall that stump water was the recipe in “Tom Sawyer” for getting rid of warts to.

    I think freckles are cute, within reason. I don’t know as I ever had them. But I do not tan well, mostly just burn. I have had some horrendous sunburns.

  12. I was blessed (cursed) with freckles all my life. I was teased, sometimes beyond the limits about them. I hated them and got my feelings hurt so many times with people making remarks or jokes (not to me) but in general conversations, (oh she was an ugly freckled face gal) and on with their tale and never think how that could hurt someone with freckles. Out of five girls in family I was the only one that got the freckles. Time marched on and I got old enough to discover makeup and I used it on face for years. Then in later years the freckles did not bother me. I never think of them anymore. But still remember my young years like this morning when I read this story. I like hearing they were angel kisses.

  13. My blond cousin had freckles dtill doez she had a red headed momma, my mothers sister. Neither my mother or I ever caught them though. My cousin and I did everything our childish brains could think of to get rid of hers. Of course I wanted freckles just because I couldn’t have them

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