This is for all you seniors out there who remember thinking your parents didn’t know as much as you did.

I knew everything when I was 15 or so. (I must have been almost unbearable.)

And by the time I was about 21 or 22, and living on my own in Boston, I would have bet anyone that my mother had an awful lot to learn. I hardly ever called home for advice about anything since I was pretty sure I’d learned all there was to learn, and more.

What I didn’t realize until decades later was how much wisdom my mother had accumulated in her life. And how much I had learned from her. Every day it seems I’m reminded of something she used to do and I wonder how she acquired that knowledge.

I recently picked up a magazine at the laundromat, one of those so-called women’s magazines, which featured several articles about health and how to improve one’s general well-being. Wellness, well-being – it all means good health.

The magazine had several pages devoted to the latest scientific studies, which show that fish oil is extremely good for you. Almost immediately, I thought of the winter morning routine at my house when we were children. On the way outside to stand stiff as a board in the cold, and wait for the school bus, we would first have a spoonful of cod liver oil. The resounding “yuks” can still be heard. But there was no arguing. “It’s good for you. Now just take the medicine and stop fussing. You don’t want to be sick, do you?”

How did this young woman, born on a farm and with only a high school education, know fish oil was good for us and probably the high content of precious vitamins A and D (the sunshine vitamin) kept us from getting sore throats, winter colds and in those days, much worse ailments.

The 2007 scientific study on this fish oil says that in European countries, the remedy of fish oil had been common for many generations. Since my maternal grandmother was Danish, I figure that my mother learned from her mother and was determined to keep her children healthy. So she continued the winter routine of cod liver oil.

It wasn’t long before the cod liver oil (yuk) was replaced with a patent medicine called Father John’s Medicine. It tasted a lot better than the plain oil and we children never knew what the ingredients were – but it was brown and sweet. We would have been disgusted to know it was made from cod liver oil, gum Arabic and glycerin mixed with sugar, licorice and flavoring oils. At the time it was one of the very few patent medicines that didn’t contain alcohol. My mother was so smart!

It seems that today’s generation of youngsters might benefit from some of the old-fashioned advice for which my generation’s moms were famous: Go outside and play. Get some sunshine. Eat your vegetables. Drink your milk. Wash your hands. Finish your homework.

And take your medicine.