Doctors once prescribed a tonic.
Sulfur and molasses was the dose.
Didn’t help one bit.
My condition must be chronic.
Spring can really hang you up the most.
I've always loved that lyric, but I never believed it. However, in reading a book called "Home Grown" by Della T. Lutes, I came across this passage:
As the colds disappeared and spring drew near we needed tonics. Sulphur and molasses, of course, was most commonly administered to the defenseless. My father refused to touch it and, as the snow disappeared, concocted his own "bitters." These were made from the roots of rhubarb, yellow dock, dandelion, mandrake, and God knows what else, with the bark of elder and sassafras added.
