Black tea and dry toast were what I got from my grandmother if I was sick off school. Then my mum would come home and give me flat Coca-Cola. Then my dad would come home and give me warm whisky and milk if I was nauseated, or a hot whisky if I had a cold. My dad is a firm believer in the healing powers of alcohol, even for small children (although he gave us probably a teaspoonful of whisky at most).
I don’t drink black tea, certainly wouldn’t eat dry toast and I like my coke fizzy…but I still like whisky and milk and hot toddies though.
That’s probably because I associate them with my dad bringing me the drinks in bed, tucking me in and telling me stories (something he only did when we were sick, most nights my mum did the stories and tucking in) and by the time dad came home we were usually feeling better anyway.
I like bananas, but anything fake banana flavoured tastes like the kiddie ampicillin which gave me anaphylaxis, so I have to steer clear of it. To me “banana” flavouring tastes of throat-closing fear, itchiness and parental panic.
Tea and oatmeal used to make me sick when I was a kid, because they were something I ate only when I was sick.
The smell of a “greasy-spoon” diner smells like sick to me, because I was very prone to getting carsick when I was a kid, and those were the kind of restaurants we’d usually eat in on car trips. For some reason, they bother me more early in the morning than later in the day.
My mom had some plastic cups that I remember gargling warm salt water from when I had some dental procedure or other done. The pain medicine I got made me nauseous, and now the smell of those plastic cups makes me sick. I didn’t object at all when Mom gave those cups to my sister for her baby to play with…
Hmm…and here I thought you were Pitting classical air-conditioning. Now that got my dander up…can’t live without the freaking thing. Classic or or not.
But Pepto-Bismol?
Sigh. Carry on.
My brain apparently works on Contrapuntal’s logic. I’ve taken enough Pepto-bismol when I’ve been ill in the past that now a wintergreen Altoid is enough to get the same effect.
I must be the odd one out, because Pepto? Made me sick.
What I mean is, after taking Pepto-Bismol to settle my upset stomach, I’d find myself violently hurling my guts into the porcelain throne. Don’t take the Pepto and I might still puke, but it was guaranteed if I did take it.
My mom noted the connection before I did. I’ve tested it since (when I wasn’t sick) and barely held back the deluge. Something about Pepto-Bismol and my stomach just don’t get along.
I still like strawberry shakes, though. 
Oh, and so this isn’t a complete hijack:
I’ve learned to make use of one of my conditioned habits. If I have so much as an ounce of pee stored in my bladder, running water will magnify it to a gallon or two, which must be released NOW. So I turn on the sink for a few seconds before leaving on long trips and don’t have to make pit stops.
Now if I could just figure out the ‘trigger’ for Number Two, I might never have to pull into a rest stop ever again…
That or he was pitting the way they treated Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
“It’s a sin! Using Ludwig van like that! He did no harm to anyone. Beethoven just wrote music!”
That’s how itworks for me. While I’ve never particulary enjoyed the taste of Pepto-Bismol, the placebo effect of the flavor alone always makes me feel a bit better. Heck, if you chopped off my toe and I was writhing in agony, I bet I’d feel a little bit better if I tasted PB.
It’s the flavor of “feeling better”.
My parent’s marriage started getting kind of bad when I was in high school. If my dad was home during the day–say, on a weekend–the one time he and my mom would be guaranteed to be in the same room was when he came to the kitchen to get meals (which he usually carried off to wherever). As I hated the tension and fights that sometimes resulted, I would usually “go to the bathroom” before dinner. Even if I didn’t have to go, I’d force myself to pee the, like, three drops out.
Now, ten years after this started, if I’m at home, and we’re having a meal. . .gotta go! ::grumbles::