Vicious Vicks

When I was a kid, I sucked my fingers. Not my thumb, but my fingers- index and middle to be exact. Simultaneously. It kind of looked like I was plugging my mouth. I'm not sure why I chose those 2 fingers instead of the standard thumb, but I did. And I did it for a long time- too long in my mom's eyes. I think I was still sucking my fingers until age 7 or 8...which is where the Vicks comes in.
At first, my mom would just yank the fingers out of my mouth and scold me. That didn't work. In fact, I couldn't go to sleep at night without sucking them. (Insert oral fixation joke here). So my mom would tuck me in, and stand there and watch me for 10 minutes or so, until I "fell asleep". As soon as she left, I brought out my finger lollipop and sucked to my heart's content. Well she caught on...there are pictures of my asleep, with hand in mouth.
So my mom got smart. She started rubbing Vicks VapoRub on my fingers at night...and during the day...and anytime I even remotely lifted my fingers to my mouth. I thought I could stand the Vicks, but after many times gagging myself, I gave in. I cried and cried, claiming child abuse, but she didn't want to hear it. It worked- I stopped sucking my fingers, and had to get a palette expander oradontically put in a year later. Trust me...with that thing attached to the roof of my mouth, there wasn't room for my fingers or anything else. (Aaannndd second joke here.)
Why am I bringing this up? Because I've got a head cold this week, and I've been using Vicks under my nose to open up the nasal passages. To this day, the smell of that stuff takes me back. It doesn't make me gag anymore, but it certainly doesn't smell GOOD. For fun, I licked my finger after applying the Vicks to my nose. (Is that totally nasty or what?!) Ew...still tastes bad. So for all your thumb/finger-suckers out there- look out! This secret weapon is still in full effect.