Oh nice! You understand what I was up against with way more mature kids, especially at puberty. Holy crap, those few months made such a dramatic difference!
BTW, I'm pretty sure this was 1982. I'm gonna write about some of our shared times soon, hopefully! The memories are coming back faster now that I've rediscovered something like 400 photos of me that my mom put on a CD a few years back. Holy crap, there's a lot. I am overwhelmed with the memories.
Dude. The more I learn about your childhood injuries, the more impressed I am that you're still around to tell the tale!
Speaking of milk teeth. My daughter will be 8 in May and she still has all of hers. We're going for a standard dentist checkup next week, so my guess is they'll want to take an X-ray and learn more.
Oh wow! I guess I was a lot like her. Maybe there was something biologically different with me... it seems unlikely that I wouldn't have loosed a tooth by the age of 7 or so, given all those other things I did to myself, but if my teeth were like more firmly planted in there or had deeper roots, maybe that would explain things. I'd guess your daughter is going to have some of the same trauma as me!
That's interesting about losing teeth in a dream being symbolic. I never knew that. Tony Soprano's teeth keep falling out in a dream sequence he has in season five I believe. I once got a splinter in my big toe. It was two inches long. My dad helped me get it out, but it definitely freaked me out when it first happened. Great post, Andrew.
Ok while I do have stories of nails and razors doing unfortunate things to my body, I think the story of my baby teeth is more interesting. It's definitely a genetic thing - my gpa had baby teeth pulled in his 50s.
In 7th grade I still had a mouthful so the orthodontist pulled 12 of them out at once, leaving me with 12 left and a gap on each side so my party trick was fully biting down on a pencil and sliding it fully out sideways. Then the orthodontist cut into the roof of my mouth to pull the nascent teeth down and wire the whole mess up.
maybee? I don't remember that particular trauma in HS. I just got back from the dentist - chipped front tooth from grinding and filling keeps falling out. I just had him file that sh#t down because aint nobody got time for that.
Sounds like maybe it wasn't so terrible, at least discomfort-wise. For me, the main thing was the social presentation - I would have crawled across glass on my knees if I could be accepted by the cool kids, at least for like a year or two.
I also had a friend who was soooo intent on being cool he ended up miserable. Married a stripper (for reals!) and just couldn’t keep up with his image of himself. He was the dude in HS who owned an El Camino.
i have broken zero bones that aren’t teeth. i was the youngest in every class in every school i attended. my birthday is august.
Oh nice! You understand what I was up against with way more mature kids, especially at puberty. Holy crap, those few months made such a dramatic difference!
Have you cracked a tooth?
Do you know, even after all the crazy ish we did, I have never once broken a bone. (Knock wood) I'm like a Timex. I just keep on ticking. 💜
I must be up to a baker's dozen by now.
BTW, I'm pretty sure this was 1982. I'm gonna write about some of our shared times soon, hopefully! The memories are coming back faster now that I've rediscovered something like 400 photos of me that my mom put on a CD a few years back. Holy crap, there's a lot. I am overwhelmed with the memories.
Dude. The more I learn about your childhood injuries, the more impressed I am that you're still around to tell the tale!
Speaking of milk teeth. My daughter will be 8 in May and she still has all of hers. We're going for a standard dentist checkup next week, so my guess is they'll want to take an X-ray and learn more.
Oh wow! I guess I was a lot like her. Maybe there was something biologically different with me... it seems unlikely that I wouldn't have loosed a tooth by the age of 7 or so, given all those other things I did to myself, but if my teeth were like more firmly planted in there or had deeper roots, maybe that would explain things. I'd guess your daughter is going to have some of the same trauma as me!
At least she's yet to break a single bone, but you never know with kids!
Maybe she was just really careful with those milk teeth.
That's interesting about losing teeth in a dream being symbolic. I never knew that. Tony Soprano's teeth keep falling out in a dream sequence he has in season five I believe. I once got a splinter in my big toe. It was two inches long. My dad helped me get it out, but it definitely freaked me out when it first happened. Great post, Andrew.
The splinter memory has me gong down that particular rabbit hole now! Yikes!
Ok while I do have stories of nails and razors doing unfortunate things to my body, I think the story of my baby teeth is more interesting. It's definitely a genetic thing - my gpa had baby teeth pulled in his 50s.
In 7th grade I still had a mouthful so the orthodontist pulled 12 of them out at once, leaving me with 12 left and a gap on each side so my party trick was fully biting down on a pencil and sliding it fully out sideways. Then the orthodontist cut into the roof of my mouth to pull the nascent teeth down and wire the whole mess up.
THAT was some medieval torture bullshit.
Oh yeah, that's horrible. I've got some rough dental stories, too. Here's to reliving trauma together!
Did your permanent teeth end up feeling "normal" after a year or two?
maybee? I don't remember that particular trauma in HS. I just got back from the dentist - chipped front tooth from grinding and filling keeps falling out. I just had him file that sh#t down because aint nobody got time for that.
Sounds like maybe it wasn't so terrible, at least discomfort-wise. For me, the main thing was the social presentation - I would have crawled across glass on my knees if I could be accepted by the cool kids, at least for like a year or two.
I also had a friend who was soooo intent on being cool he ended up miserable. Married a stripper (for reals!) and just couldn’t keep up with his image of himself. He was the dude in HS who owned an El Camino.
Oh god. That's Al Bundy.