OUCH!!!

My younger daughter is battling a rather yucky infected thumb laceration.  We have been soaking it in Epsom Salts and applying Neosporin daily but it is taking a little time to heal.  The other night my in-laws were over for dinner and Amelia's thumb injury was brought up. I did not know that the topic of one single thumb injury could turn into an entire dinner conversation but of course, here at Yesteryear Acres, it did.  I believe it all started when I said that kids today have it SOOOO easy with their little cuts and wounds.  Neosporin was NOT around back when I was little.  No sir! We didn't have some clear gel that was completely painless.  We didn't have cute little Band-aids or antibiotic creams or all the other wimpy products on the market today.  We had....MERTHIOLATE!  Mercurochrome! Monkey Blood! Liquid Fire! I DO NOT HAVE A CUT ANYWHERE I PROMISE! Bottle of bright orange/red Pain Inducing Misery! If you ever wonder what it would feel like to put liquid acid of fire right onto your cut, just use one glass dropper full of Merthiolate and you will know what TRUE PAIN is!!!  My mom loved the stuff. It was the only thing we had in the house. It came in a brown bottle with a glass dropper and just thinking about it could bring an instant flood of tears to my eyes. If we had a paper cut - Merthiolate. If we had a blister - Merthiolate. My sister and I would do all we could to hide any cuts we might have.  I remember one time cutting open my knee and insisted on wearing pants for days on end.  I believe my knee turned several shades of yellow and green oozy liquid, but even fear of losing my entire leg due to a raging infection was not enough for me to tell my mom.  Because if she even got a hint that I had a gaping wound on my knee - out would come the Merthiolate. AAAAAAHHHH!  It burned SO badly!!! It was the worst thing in the entire world! As I was sharing my greatest fear of the dreaded Merthiolate, my mother-in-law just laughed. And by laughing, I mean almost rolling on the floor.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres was in full agreement with me.  He said almost word for word what I said about hiding any injury because of the intense fear of the MONKEY BLOOD treatment.  All the while my mother-in-law just laughed.  I bet my mom is laughing right now too.  I bet she can't even stop laughing thinking about how many times she used that on my sister and I, just like my mother-in-law used it on Mr. Yesteryear Acres.  The only coherent thing I could get out of my mother-in-law was "Well it worked!" I suppose that is true.  It did work.  It worked so well that back in the day when we didn't have knee pads, or helmets, or safety glasses, or elbow pads - we got injured a LOT less than kids today......or at least that is what we told our parents!!!  I believe the rise in the numbers of cuts and wounds interestingly coincided with the invention of Bactine.  Bactine only stung a little.  It was like a miracle cure.  Of course we weren't lucky enough to have Bactine in our house  - but Mr. Yesteryear Acres was.  He said he clearly remembers when they made the switch. I bet he does! My kids haven't had the "pleasure" of having me pour Merthiolate on their cuts.  They got Disney Band-aids and Neosporin. Whatever will they do when they grow up? Their "Back when I was little" stories will be pathetic. I feel sooo sorry for them. Don't you?