I remember its place, sitting on the white-washed window ledge in the tie stall. Second sill to the right when walking in the barn from the milk house.
It was usually flanked by work gloves or a syringe, iodine cup, or grain scoop. The items around it would come and go, but that green tin was always there. Usually a dust-laced cobweb hung in the window’s corner, serving as a protective canopy, watching over the gold inside.
I always knew where to find it.
In the summer, it was soft and pliable, but as the days got shorter and the nights got colder, it required some extra plying to soften and warm before working it into the skin on my hands or the cracked teat on the udder of my favorite cow.
Regardless of the reason for its use, it was always the same, reliable and healing.
As I grew and visited more farms, large and small, I always found it to be a staple in the milk house or sitting on the counter by the door in the farmhouse kitchen. In our house, it was easy to access by the back door, always grabbing a finger full to smear across my dry lips on the way out the door.
Never could I mistake that green tin can.
In our family, it’s any skin ailment’s cure, for any creature, big or small. It is used for everything … because it works!
So, last night, when I reached for the BAG BALM to put on a small puncture wound that I had gotten on the bottom of my foot, the words Lyndonville, VT caught my eye … Really? Is that where the gold hails from? So I picked it up and started to read … and then I went to the Internet.
I never knew. For something that has been such a mainstay in my life, as well as in many of yours, I am sure, I had never asked the question, “Bag Balm, where do you hail from? When did you come into being?”
So, here it is, a link to the website and to the Wikipedia definition and history of the company. It was owned by the same family for 115 years in Vermont; I like that!
Here you go, a quick read or a little video, whatever suits your fancy.
https://www.bagbalm.com/our-heritage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag_Balm
Thank you to the square-shaped green tin with the cow on top that looks lovingly back at me every time I use it. 🙂 You have healed many a wound, stopped the chap, and smoothed the skin. Now I know.
Have a great weekend!
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