Juniper tar and horehound drops

Yesterday, Dwayne's nurse tried crushing some of the myriad of pills that Dwayne is taking and putting them in applesauce to make it easier to get the medicine down... rather than Dwayne needing to swallow a bunch of pills. Unfortunately, the medicine is very bitter, so it made a bitter powder on top of applesauce that the flavor of the applesauce could not combat.

This reminded me of my Granny giving me juniper tar on a teaspoon of sugar when I was very little - probably under 5 years old. I mentioned this to the nurse and he was wondering what it was used for... I don't remember why Granny gave it to me, I just remember that I thought, "Wow, Granny is going to give me a teaspoon full of sugar, that's going to be great!" and then getting the juniper tar on top of it and... well... it wasn't so great! The sugar couldn't overcome the nasty flavor of the juniper tar.

Dwayne's nurse googled juniper tar and the current medical application is externally for skin conditions, not to be taken internally. Obviously, Granny didn't read the internet...

I did some additional searching, and found a blog entry that had information about how other moms and grannys had used juniper tar: http://relhurg1.com/1128/juniper-tar-anyone-ever-hear-of-this-remedyfeed/
It seems that it was used for colds and coughs... some people mentioned (and I kinda remember this) that you got better quickly cuz you didn't want another dose!
There is evidently a bottle of it at the Smithsonian (not currently on display):  http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_715776

Thinking about that remedy reminded me of other home remedies... specifically, overnight I was sucking on a cough drop (the air is so dry that I feel like I need to cough, but I don't think it is related to any sickness) -- and I remembered that Mom would keep horehound drops for us to use as cough drops.
https://www.oldtimecandy.com/blogs/candy-blog/what-the-heck-is-horehound
I still think of horehound drops as medicine, not candy!

I was trying to think of other remedies that we used when I was a kid - Dad used to bring wild daisies and Mom would make a tea that she would put onto poison ivy breakouts on my skin. I dabbed calamine lotion and corn starch on chicken pox to relieve the itching. I still use camphor ice as lip balm (you can buy it on Amazon). Vick's Vapor Rub on the chest with a tee shirt over top of it.

I don't remember ever getting castor oil or goose grease, though I have heard of them being used as home remedies.

I wonder if these simpler solutions were better than what is in use today....