Those were the (Aunt Daisy) days

Who knew that chewing dried tea cures onion breath? Robert Philip Bolton found this and other gems in a collection from the revered broadcaster.

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I have been compiling a collection of housewives' handy hints drawn from the 1940s and 50s and published under the name of Aunt Daisy, a popular radio personality of the time, whose famous weekday morning programme on 1ZB went nationwide in 1937 and dominated the airwaves until 1963.

Aunt Daisy didn’t write these hints, they were written by her listeners in the postwar period of shortages and austerity, and later published in small volumes by Whitcombe & Tombs.

Today, many of the hints appear to be of dubious value, if not wrong, downright dangerous or simply naive. In some cases, we don't even recognise the problem, let alone the solution.

But who are we to judge? These hints evoke tough times following the Great Depression and World War II. It was a time when few married women worked outside the home. But they did work hard - they had to. And, at a time when money was short and there were few home appliances or cleaning products, they had to be thrifty, experimental and resourceful, working with whatever materials were available to save money and make life more agreeable.

Here are a few of the “health”-related tips: