TRADITION....

One of the things I learned early on in life was that my father could not tolerate loose teeth just hanging out in your mouth.

Ever.

Remotely loose....needs to come out.

It seemed to me his argument was purely financial.

He maintained that if we left them in there too long,

it would mess up our other teeth,

and then we would have to get braces, etc. etc. etc.

So out they came.

I learned quickly to pull my own if I could.

However, occasionally he would catch wind of one

and felt it was his mission to remove it.

We have done the whole string to the doorknob thing.

I would be lying if I said pliers perhaps were never involved.

Regardless, my teeth came out and no braces required.

When you are a kid and you learn this little tidbit about you father,

you only feel it is fair to pass it along to you siblings.

When S1 started loosing teeth, I would tell her not to let dad look.

By the time S2 started loosing teeth we double teamed dad.

It was all out war with S3.

Run sister! Run!

May have been yelled a time or two.

Now because my dad is a man of great integrity,

if he said,"I won't pull it",

he didn't.

The trick was in getting him to say that.

Usually he lured us in by saying,

"Come here and let me see how loose it is."

Which is exactly what he said to MC 2 last night.

MC 2 proudly walked up to Grandpa and said,

"Look I have a loose tooth."

Moth to a flame people... moth to a flame.

As soon as MC 2 did that I left the room.

I was transported back to being 7 and watching it all play out.

I had to restrain myself from yelling

Run baby! Run!

The extraction wasn't immediate, for Grandpa was previously engaged,but as soon as his hands were free

"Boy come here and let me see how loose that tooth is."

The tradition lives on.

(and I have no idea why this is formatting like it is and am in no mood to fight it so...uhm...there you go.)