More Than a Band-Aid Box

The band-aid was invented by Earle Dickson in 1920 to provide ready-made bandages for his wife, Josephine, to use when she injured herself in the kitchen. He told his boss at Johnson & Johnson about what he created and the company soon began producing their BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages. Because BAND-AID® Brand was the first band-aid available, eventually all-ready-made bandages were referred to as band-aids, though not all bandages are BAND-AID® Brand bandages.

According to the Johnson & Johnson website, they began packaging BAND-AID® Brand bandages in decorative tins in 1926. The website indicates that people reused the empty tins to store many things, including “small nails, holding extra buttons and safety pins, even storing marbles and baseball cards.” My grandmother was no exception to this.

My grandmother kept cash around her house in band-aid boxes. White metal BAND-AID® Brand tins and green and white plastic Curad® boxes. They were under where she sat in the living room, in the cabinet in the kitchen, and in the top drawer in the utility room. They were sprinkled around the house. One time, the family was sitting around the living room, talking about who wanted what when grandma died. Grandma was in the room, participating in this conversation. In a moment of silence during this macabre conversation, my Uncle Jerry said he wanted the band-aid boxes. Everyone laughed, including grandma.

My grandparents came of age during the depression. My grandpa was born in 1916 and my grandma in 1918. They both knew how to make do with very little. Grandma didn’t just repurpose band-aid boxes. She could reuse just about any container. When she died, my Uncle Willie cleared stacks and stacks of Cool Whip, Country Crock, and other plastic tubs of similar size/shapes from her kitchen and basement. To this day, I don’t assume that there is actually Country Crock in a Country Crock container any more than I assume there are band-aids in a band-aid box.

In reality, she used band-aid boxes for more than storing money. The one pictured here was in her sewing cabinet holding notions. I found it after she died and kept it. A remembrance of my grandma and the story I shared above.

Last November, my aunt, and uncle sent me $40 for my 40th birthday. Each $20 bill was carefully folded into a heart. I couldn’t bring myself to unfold them, so I placed them in my grandma’s band-aid box. It seemed like a fitting home for them. The perfect place for an emergency stash of money and love.