As I get old, and by definition I am aging daily,

[cksmithy]

17. My mother always had a small bottle of merthiolate or Mercurochrome,

that she used on all of us 6 kids' skinned knees or scrapes. She always said, other people use iodine, but this is better, it doesn't sting as much. It hurt like crazy. Since I was a girl, I wore dresses or skirts to school (1950's), that had asphalt for basket ball, volley ball courts,etc. but, also, no grass on the fields where you played kickball, soft ball, base ball, for foot ball. I came home with skinned knees quite frequently.

(We also were not allowed to walk on the grassy areas between rows/hall of classrooms. There a wooden paddle in the office hung on the wall and it would be used if you were sent to the office for misbehaving.)

I would clean my knee at school with water and a paper towel, they didn't hand out band aids unless it was actively bleeding. I'd get home my mom would scrub my knee and then put Mercurochrome on and would get mad, if I I said it hurt, but she always said, she was doing the right thing. I still have scars on my knees and shins from then. Umm, I wonder if the mercury is related to my autoimmune issues today. (Sarcasm)

Thanks for the walk down memory lane. My MIL was only 59, behaving a little oddly, she missed her hair salon appointment, who called to check on her. FIL found her unconscious, ambulance to hospital, exploratory surgery, died two weeks later from liver cancer that had metastasized throughout her body. (1973)

It is so wonderful and amazing how far things have come. I know several people, in the last 10 years, who would ended up like my mil, if the new technologies like ct scans and mris were not available.