The 1950s Medicine Chest

Talking with a friend last week I was remembering something which seems mind-blowing given how people live today. Do you realize that a mere 60 years ago the following was the ENTIRE medication kept in an average American home?: aspirin, iodine (for disinfecting cuts), calamine lotion (for itching from bugs or poison ivy), a foul, tar-like spray for sore throats name of which I have blessedly forgotten, and a tin of bandaids. Sometimes instead of iodine people kept mercurochrome. I was unable to swallow anything like aspirin (very sensitive gag reflex) so my mother had to grind it up and mix that bitter stuff with applesauce. When I was about nine (1952) I had penicillin for the first time. Each capsule (which was a new invention) cost 25 cents and my mother threatened me with dire consequences if I ruined even one by not being able to swallow it.