Not sure if the cure wasn't alot worse than the ''disease''. When I was around 8 or 9, just to see how much of a man we were, my next door neighbors and I would take and cup our hands around flowers, when the honey bees were in them getting nectar. We were all stung a few times, but honey bee stings weren't that bad.
The real kicker happened one day, when my we were out in my woods just being kids. When my dad built our house, there were some left over building sections. One of which, was a piece of tin roofing, around 10'x10'. And a nest of yellow jackets had built under it. It had a curve to it, so a couple of us could stand on one side of it, and get it to rockin, kinda like a teter-toter. This would get the bee's riled up, and then we'ld run like hell. Well, one day, I didn't run fast enough, and got stung just above the left eye. Man, that hurt. I went into the house crying. My mother, old school,depression era lady, said, we got to get that stinger out. She couldn't get it with a pair of tweezers, so she decided, that it had to be burnt out. Being 8 or 9, and a loving son, I figured that mom knew best. Didn't realize, when she fired up that Salem cigarette, what she had in mind. YUP, just what your thinking. Stuck that sucker just above my eye. Burnt out the stinger. My buddies from a couple house's down said the scream was just a little less than the sonic booms the jet planes use to make. I was just fine the next day. Amazing healing powers that mothers have.
Sometime later, I'll have to tell you guys how she cured my tonsilitus. gypsyman