From the December 19th, 2004 show

Gramma always had concerns for everyone keeping warm, I remember when the first battery operated toasty warm socks came out, Gramma laughed so hard, she had tears running down her cheeks.

Today they are a best seller to the outdoorsman. But, needless to say, gramma had great remedy for keeping the fee f warm for all of us. She kept an old canning jar with the metal tin lids poked with holes next to where she folded the clothes. It was always filled with a bright, reddish orange powdery substance.

Patiently I would watch gramma do the laundry with an old wringer washer and then hang the clothes by the fire to dry, when the weather was too severe. Once the clothing dried she had a regular routine for each persons clothing. Grandpa's got special attention since grampa would always be outside in the cold snow for one reason or another. Gramma would place his socks on a table with old papers underneath them. She would take the reddish jar off the shelf and lightly sprinkle grampa's socks on the bottom, then rub them together and fold them.

Eventually gramma gave up the recipe.

She said it was I cup of crushed red cayenne pepper1/3 of a of ground ginger, 1/4cup of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon. She always said it was used to keep the feet warm, lessen the chances for athlete's feet, and to lesson bad foot odor from sweating.

I never really paid much attention to this recipe until the blizzardof1977, when I had to be outside quite a bit, After freezing to death, I went back into the house, and with a bit of memory and luck, I made up the recipe.

I went one-step further and sprinkled the inside of my boots too.

Unbelievable, but it worked. Naturally, ask you physician to approve this before using it.