Well, my cold is almost gone, no more runny nose, just a cough now and then. My sister Diane sent me a card with my picture on the front of it, about five years old, wearing toy glasses, with a stethoscope around my neck . It was all part of my Doctor's Kit, a Christmas present from Santa. The kit came with an apron to wear, watch, device to check you ears, the little hammer to hit your knee for reflexes, pill containers, and a small bag of candies to fill the pill bottles. There was also an eye chart and prescription pad and a plastic needle to give pretend shots with. It came with bandaids, but these were used up on my dolls and were replaced with bandaids from our medicine cabinet. This was from an era when doctors made house visits and needed to carry a kit.

I remember Doctor Supple coming to our Washington Avenue apartment in Grandma's house. You could hear him climbing the stairs, I think I was probably screaming, No, no, but up he came trudging up the stairs. I had been sick, maybe with whooping cough and coughed until I threw up, which Bucky has saved in one of my father's photography trays (ugh). Dr. Supple was a heavy man, and a heavy smoker, his office desk had a full ashtray on it. But he, like the other Beacon doctors would come to your house. He checked the tray, pulled out some medicine and I was on the way to mend.

The doctors of that time were heroes, everyone had a story of being saved. Bucky told of a friend who couldn't breath and the doctor asked for a fountain pen, used the ink well portion, and performed a tracheometry in the house, putting the pen piece in her throat to open the airway. I think Liz Taylor had that done, but not with a pen part. My kids' father at age ten had cut off the tip of his finger with a sharp shovel and his father put it in a coffee can and took him with the finger piece to Dr. Astone, who sewed the finger tip back on. "Let's try this", he said, and it worked.

Toy doctor kits are probably not even made anymore. If they did make them today, they would have to have MRI and EKG machines with them and all the equipment used today to determine what the ailment is and what to do about it. The doctors in the past did pretty darn good with just that stethoscope and little hammer.