I can’t tell you how many times I carried this along on camping trips to the High Sierras in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time, this Johnson & Johnson plastic first-aid kit looked reassuringly capable of handling anything from a scraped knee to a bear attack, although its actual contents probably suggested otherwise. After a day of hiking around the granite peaks, fishing a cold mountain stream, or stumbling over rocks, that little kit was the official headquarters for bandages, antiseptic, and whatever else could keep a minor disaster from interrupting dinner. Its scratched plastic case fit perfectly among the Coleman stove, canvas tent, sleeping bags, and cans of beans, serving as a comforting reminder that even if the mosquitoes, altitude, sunburn, and questionable campfire cooking got the upper hand, modern medicine had at least arrived in a small blue-and-white box.
