All right, get your mind out of the gutter. I’m not talking about THAT kind of playing doctor!
A while back, I wrote about how actually visiting a doctor was a mixed bag for a kid.On the one hand, there was the ever-present fear of getting a shot. On the other, there were all of those mega-cool instruments to look at. You would only look, though. You wouldn’t dare touch.
But toymakers remembered how fascinated they were with doctor tools when they were kids. So since time immemorial, they have made miniature versions of doctors tools for kids to play with, whether out of stone, bronze, or modern-day plastic.
And I’ll bet most of you Boomers out there can remember playing with a doctor kit that looked just like the one in the illustration.
The doctor kit I had in the mid 1960’s had a white “bag” (actually a snap-to-close plastic case shaped like a bag) with a little red cross on it. The depicted kit was much fancier than mine, I didn’t have a microscope. But I did have one of those little hooguses that doctors use to look inside your ear. And I had a set of pince-nez plastic glasses just like in the image. And, coolest of all, I had a stethoscope with rubber tubing just like the one illustrated that really did let you listen to your heartbeat.
With my handy-dandy doctor kit, one of my main duties was treating battlefield casualties during our frequent battles fought while playing army. Sometimes those blasted Germans would gun down the good guys, but a quick fixup from a Medic with a plastic doctor kit would instantly heal the most crippling injury.
Another frequent patient was Frisky, our pet poodle. He would patiently allow me to perform examinations and operations as he quietly napped. That dog just never seemed to appreciate the medical miracles I blessed him with on a regular basis.
Nowadays, doctor kits are still quite popular. The Peerless kits we played with all those years ago are gone, but there are many toy manufacturers out there selling a variety of different doctor kits.
Does your grandkid have one? If not, you know what you need to do next, Boomers!