Visvaporús

By A Basque in Boise February 27, 2013 Chico, Memories, Random 4 Comments

Tip: Washing your hands is an easy way to fight cold germs. For more tips, like VapoRub.

The ad popped up on Facebook, like they do these days, and I was suddenly home and eight years old.

Vicks VapoRub. That could easily be what I’d use if I had to pick two words to describe my childhood. Except back then, we called it “visvaporús”. Virtually every night I’d go to sleep enveloped in that strong minty smell, which emanated from my body after my dad rubbed the goo on my chest before kissing me goodnight and closing the door. It wasn’t so much that I was sick all the time, but there was no central heating (there still isn’t) in our house, and the concoction tingled and got quite warm on skin contact.

I remember the day I found out what visvaporús really stood for. Holy shit. After twenty-two years it finally made sense.

Vapor Rub. VapoRub. Genius.

Thanks for passing by: ↓

4 thoughts on “Visvaporús”

Terese February 28, 2013 at 4:55

He he… Same here! I can’t forget when I discovered what it stands for. In hour house, though, instead of “visvaporús” we used to use “visvaporú”…
Ainhoa February 28, 2013 at 7:34

Ha ha ha ha!!! Ay, Henar, yo tambien pase mi niñez muy apegada al Visvaporús… me dan hasta ganas de salir y ver si puedo comprar in tarro en algun sitio aquí en Londres. Que nostalgia…!
NeskaBaska February 28, 2013 at 8:42

Me muero de risa. Ya somos cuatro, jajaja. Era mi droga favorita de la niñez. ¡¡La de horas que me pasé con la nariz pegada al tarro!! Como dice Ainhoa, me dan ganas de salir a comprarme un tarro!
Henar Chico February 28, 2013 at 9:24

I am so happy I wrote this blog post! It’s been awesome to see that many others had the same experiences as a child! Even a Basque-American friend of mine told me that, even though she was born and raised in the United States, both of her parents are from the Basque Country and she also grew up with “visvaporús”!