Chills

Does noone catch a chill any more?

When I was a child, every vague and non-specific illness was always attributed to a chill. "I expect you've caught a bit of a chill", my mother would say. If the complaint was located in any particular part of the body, then that was where the chill would be - a chill on the tummy, or a chill on the kidneys. The remedy was always the same, to keep warm and rest. Make no mistake about it, chills could be serious, especially if you were weak or elderly. You had to wrap up warm and take care not to catch one.

Nobody nowadays ever seems to catch chills. Perhaps it's because of cars and central heating, although you'd think that would just make us more susceptible. In twenty-odd years I've only once known someone ring in sick and give the excuse of a chill - and she was an odd girl anyway.

The only alternative ailment to a chill was a bilious attack. Noone gets them any more, either. You didn't catch these off someone else, nor were they the result of poor hygiene - they were always the result of something you had eaten not agreeing with you. This wasn't your fault, it was just a fact, and it meant you could never ever eat it again. By the time I left home, I had a list as long as my arm of things I couldn't eat. I particularly remember pilchards in tomato sauce as being forbidden. (Pilchards in any other form were just fine). My mother couldn't eat anything flavoured with orange. It was years before I realised that I could eat them all with impunity, even the pilchards (not that I particularly wanted to).