White Wednesday - Vintage First Aid Ingenuity and Tip!

When we cleaned out our garage, we found this chippy, battered, and worn little cabinet thing in the picture above.  I had no idea what it was.

I asked my BoyFriend Greg to help take a look at it.

We determined this chippy, beat up hunk o' scrap was actually a very, very Old First Aid Kit.  Someone used up the contents, let it sit around for a while, lost the lid, and then realized that it was a nice piece of metal they could use in their workshed.  It was Bolted/drilled/hammered really good into the wall, but we got it out.

People Repurposed stuff back in the old days, yet us Modern-folk find ourselves so ingenious for re-inventing new uses for Old Junk.

They don't make them like they used too, as the smaller box pictured above is an old First Aid kit we picked up last Fall.  It's contents were from the mid-70's to early-80's (the newest item in it was from 1984).  As you can see, it's a tiny bit smaller, and the metal is nowhere near as thick.  I like both of them, and I actually used one of the wrap bandages in the "newer" one recently when I was in a pinch, but more on that later.

The Older box has a layer or two of super old paint.  While I don't have kids (yet), I'm fairly sure Bender Oak would easily mistake this chippy paint as, I dunno, Coconut Shavings, or Lead-Based Potato Chips... So I'm trying to work out an idea in my head on how to re-invent it into something Safe I can bring into the house.

 

The other weekend Bender and I went Geocaching, and while I make every effort to make sure my Dog is safe, sometimes I forget to take care of myself.  We somehow ended up in the Deep Creek Park Waterway area of the Dismal Swamp Network (within Virginia).  While Treasure-Hunting/Geocaching, a Swarm of No-See-Ums and Giant Oh-my-God-did-you-see-thats descended upon my bare arms like Bender on a Bag of Spilled Doggy Treats.  I panicked, and ran out of the Swampy Woods, with Ben running beside me.  My right arm was covered in bad, bad bites, Bender was fine. TIP: No matter what area you live in, it's always good to carry Bug Spray, even in October.

(This is a bottle of White Vinegar with the label hidden, I'm not impervious to being sued)

White Vinegar is an Old, Old, Old "Cure-All" Multi-purpose Remedy for EVERYTHING. It's Older than some of my Vintage Collection.  Before there was Windex, people used Water, Soap, and White Vinegar to clean Glass and Windows.  Water and Soap to clean the Windows, but then there was always soap residue, or hard water to deal with.  A Vinegar-Water Solution would cut the residue, and provide the "Streak-Free" shine that Window/Glass Cleaning Companies would later use as their Advertising Slogan.

It's been used for everything.  Cooking, Pickling, Cleaning, Bathing, other things that end in "-ing", and...First Aid!  A really diluted solution of Vinegar would be used to disinfect table tops, marble, and even old Bathtubs, people, Hair (Real & Wigs) and Pets.

By the time Bender and I got home, the bites on my arm had swelled up pretty bad.  They looked weird, because the bites were all centralized in one location.  I washed them, and put some medicine on them, but they itched.  When I woke up the next day, the bite(s) weren't any better, in fact, they were kinda worse than before I put antibiotics on them.  This worried me for a bit, and since I don't feel like traveling 30 minutes to another city to see my doctor right now, I've started doing cold compresses of 50-50 water/vinegar, and that's helped a lot.

 

White Vinegar can be used for Sea Creature Bites, Insect Bites, Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and a billion other First Aid remedies.  If Ben and I go into the Woods, and I catch something sketchy on him, It's a bath of White Vinegar for both of us.  Plus, a good dilution soothes my skin, and makes Bender Oak's Coat Shine for almost a week.

So, Hat's off to White Vinegar, an Old Remedy from the Past.  Go do a search online, you'll find it has a ton of natural health benefits, pet benefits, and time-tested Cleaning Benefits.

PS: Thanks to my BF the CheapGeek and the Internet for the handy info about White Vinegar.

Thanks for reading everyone, and Happy Wednesday!

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