My mother and I both suffered from leg cramps at night. She has been dead for over 40 years, but she died of Leukemia and not leg cramps. Maybe you awake from sleep with your toes curling painfully down, or your calf muscles tightening, causing you to sit up in bed, trying to manually cause the pain to go away. Sometimes hopping up, so that you can put your curled toes flat on the floor.

My mother nor I ever figured out the cause, or a good remedy.

I rarely have night-time leg cramps any longer. But, some years ago, I had a revelation, at night, in bed, and I started developing a simple remedy, which for me, has worked very well.

I attributed my nightly leg cramps with having too much salt in my diet the previous day. I use some salt in my cooking, at home, but if I eat fast food, or eat out that day, I may not have much control of the salt in my food. Also, I have not paid attention to how much liquid I consume during that time.

Growing up, salt and pepper were about the only spices we used on our food. Needless to say, my mother was not a good cook. My “Aunt Sis” was a very good cook, but mom had not gravitated toward those skills. My mother liked working outdoors, in the yard, mowing and grooming the yard (although I wouldn’t say our yard would ever win any awards). She also bought a Singer Zig-Zag sewing machine and through the years made many of her dresses from “store bought” patterns from companies such as Butterick, Simplicity, etc. *She also would save up and I think about twice a year, or whenever Pik-n-Pay would have their sales special, she would buy several pairs of shoes for work and home. She did not skimp on me or my clothing, but she was quite frugal on herself. **I even recall that one time, after years of wearing the same prescription glasses, she absolutely had to spend the money on a new pair. And, when she put them on, she started acting like a child who was seeing things for the first time. After several comments from her about things she could now see, I said something to the effect that, “Mom, you should have bought new glasses when you first needed them.”

Sis was a good cook, but that is not to say that she used spices to flavor her food other than salt & pepper. She used fatback, and ham hocks, bacon grease. I don’t recall her ever using garlic. Pepper vinegar on collards. But her food was delicious. She would normally have two different meats prepared, and three vegetables (on the stove top), and maybe biscuits. But, she would cycle through what she had prepared. She might make soup out of the remainder of the week’s earlier vegetables (e.g. green beans, potatoes, tomatoes) at the end of the week. I don’t ever recall having broccoli, asparagus or Brussel sprouts, but blackeyed peas, green or white butterbeans, green beans & potatoes, corn on and off the cob, mashed potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, and turnips or rutabagas, and all the various tops/”greens” that could be “cooked down” with a little seasoning meat, including collards, turnip greens… Oh, and assorted seafood, fried fish, or crabs, etc. Chicken -n- pastry! Bacon/sausage and eggs (scrambled or over easy), grits or rice. A big hunk of pork or beef every so often. How about some sliced cucumber and chopped onions in sweetened vinegar? Beets!

My favorite dish, and one that I often said I would prefer as “my last meal” would be: Blackeyed peas, with ham hock, and some sweet Vidalia onion chopped up. Now, we did not have Vidalia onions when I was growing up, but I now use sweet onions for many things that just need a pleasant, sweet, raw onion. But, in almost everything that I cook, I start with sauteing a regular onion (“Any onion is sweet once it hits the heat.). *And, if seasoned well, sometimes a mess of large white butterbeans really hits the spot.

Now mom could fix fried chicken well, add a few sides, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, or potato salad and dinner rolls (store bought). Sweet tea. The potato salad included large diced white potatoes, onion, sweet relish, mayo and some sugar. — A pot of diced ham in white rice, or chicken was deliciously filling. Corned beef, potatoes & onion in a simple stew (S&P). And, from the really brief time, when the paycheck hadn’t lasted and mom had me scrounging in the rear floor board of the old, gray/tan Chevy, “Saltines & Yellow French’s Mustard”. **I still love the flavor of Saltines and mustard to this day. We liked Kraft Sharp Cheddar cheese.

The above picture was taken by Mary Ann Kellum (Sharpe) a little after my 6th birthday. This is the back porch of the old two-story house that mom and I lived in, which was on one corner of Hwy. 24 and Queens Creek Road. Many things in this picture: chain off the new Roadmaster bicycle from Western Auto; Wisteria bush; front end of tan/light gray Chevy; little house that Lyde lived in (because she had TB); mule on other side of ditch, tail to us; beyond the mule and across Queens Creek Road was an old tobacco barn that burned down. I note that the edge of the porch is a fine straight line which means this porch had probably been recently replaced. The wood at the edge of an old porch would begin to wear away and become jagged. The kitchen would be to my back and the porch to my left would lead to the door of the main house & its hallway.

So, what do I do when I wake up with leg cramps at night. I hop up, go to the bathroom, and drink a bunch of water and the cramps go away… I go back to sleep and the cramps do not return that night. It might take about 5 minutes for the cramps to fully subside, and if the cramps seem to want to persist longer, I drink a bunch more water. But, for quite a few years now, drinking the water has worked for me! Oh, I have a friend that said her remedy was to eat some Yellow Mustard. I see online that this is a suggested remedy. If I ever need to I might try the mustard in addition to the water.

Now that I think of it, eating the Saltine crackers with French’s mustard should be sort of a checks -n- balance, shouldn’t it?

NOTE: There was a manual, hand crank, ice-crusher mounted on the wall near the back door (kitchen in Sis’s house). Like this one.

Oddly enough, when I checked online as to what might cause leg cramps, I surprisingly found that one article said that not having enough salt, or magnesium, could cause the leg cramps. One article talked about athletes that have leg cramps (during a game). One article said that athletes were sweating out the salt they needed. But, this goes entirely in the wrong direction for me. Sure you may be sweating out liquid & salt, but I’m saying that too much liquid is leaving, and leaving you with too much salt in your blood. *Drink more water!

[05/04/22]: I awoke between 1 am and 4 am, and realized that I had a minor leg cramp. Actually it was just at the top of my right foot, but I knew from previous instances, that this was the start of a cramp. I jumped up and drank about two cups of water and went in the living room to sit. The soreness, as it hadn’t developed into a full cramp, started to subside. Sure enough, in about 10 minutes, the cramp was gone. Cause: Well, I had a Country Ham breakfast at Helen’s Kitchen… I had a hamburger and baked potato at Logan’s and then, I had a hamburger and onion rings (which I salted) at Hwy. 55 on the way back to Fayetteville. A bunch of eating out during the day, and with salted foods.