Vinegar is well known to old timey folks around these parts as Nature's all-purpose medicine and food supplement. It should be accessible in any household, and any campsite on a vacation tour. It's nasty sour taste and pungent odor make it instantly recognizable to all with only one experience. It can't be beat as a flavoring on salads and boiled greens, especially considering its minuscule cost in comparison to the fancy stuff, and with the fact it's good  for us added in, there's no reason not to always have it around.

Be wary, though, when you buy it. Look closely at the labels to determine what kind of vinegar you're getting. Distilled vinegar will have much of its nutritional value removed, and will be mostly good for external household uses. Distilled vinegar comes in clear, and with color added. The additional coloring does nothing to improve it for internal bodily use.  Once you have grown accustomed to regular vinegar use, you'll become sensitive to the nuances of its flavor that tells you whether the natural ingredients and nutritional value of natural vinegar is present, or whether you are tasting the harsher, raw aroma of the distilled variety.

As a bug repellant, the fancy chemicals in the department stores have to struggle to beat vinegar. For personal use internal to your own body (and those for whom you are responsible, make sure to get natural apple vinegar only. The vitamins (mainly b's and c), according to sources promoting the use of vinegar, are what make natural vinegar also a useful and effective bug repellant. The kinds of bugs that like to poke holes in people's skin (fleas, ticks, mosquitoes) avoid places where vinegar is present. Once it has dried, the smell of it on your body seems to disappear because your skin absorbs a lot of it. That's good, because I also do not want to attract fruit flies (not good for the image I want to present to Mama Lou).

There's one aspect of it I use to ward off arguments about it: Try it. That's the same thing we like to tell people about Naturism when they want to prejudge our practices with no first hand knowledge of their own. It's a good rule to apply to many areas of life where there are prejudices involved. A good, knowledgeable doctor is always to be a preferred source of advice.

Vitamins in natural vinegar are the same as in the fruit, and may be many people's only source for some of them—especially on the road eating at fast-food places where the only vinegar served is likely the distilled variety. Natural vinegar also contains fiber. Some doctors claim vinegar helps balance the body chemistry, which puts it in the category with other feel-good stuff.

Ear infections seem to respond well to a fifty/fifty mixture of natural vinegar and rubbing alcohol. Use a dropper to put four drops in each ear after a shower or swim, if you are prone to ear infections, and let it take a minute or two to work its way into all the nooks and crannies. I read this in one of Mama Lou's magazines, used myself for a guinea pig (since I have this problem), and it worked. Use your own discretion before trying out this kind of an idea, of course, as well as the next one.

Poison ivy's active ingredient is an alkali, which dissolves tissues to do its damage. Being an old country boy prone toward wandering while wondering and remaining unwary, I have been taught what to do about the oils in the skin. Acids neutralize alkalis, and vinegar of any kind goes a long way toward doing that with several applications. I was taught to rub it in using table salt, which makes me cringe to tell it, but brought quicker relief and quicker drying.

You may want to try this on a small area first, if you have never used this method before, to see what your responses will be. I know many people who do this, however, and know of no ill effects (to me, it feels good once I have gotten started).

Also, it is important to use vinegar in the rinse water when washing clothing worn after you have gotten a good mess of it on you, to keep from getting reinfected, and from infecting others whose clothing may get washed with and after yours.

To others who may not have the knowledge, poison ivy grows low to the ground and also climbs trees. Poison oak is very similar. A little old poem I learned as a kid may be useful here: "With leaves of three, turn and flee; let leaves of five remain alive." A five leafed plant named Virginia Creeper is harmless, but its similarity to poison ivy can be scary.

Also, I have read where aloe vera will cause the skin to heal over before the rash goes away, and may actually make matters worse. Good luck if you get some on you, and be glad you carried your natural vinegar along (white or colored distilled vinegar may be just as effective in the washing machine, so don't feel like you've wasted your money if you bought it before reading this).