March 20, 2005
You Better Not Flinch!
My great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and owned a farm in Pine Mountain, Georgia, then known as Chipley. It is where my father was born. During the Depression my grandfather was working in Atlanta, but during the summers he would send my father down to the farm to "fatten him up".
My great-grandfather was apparently a mean old cuss, because my father said when he was seven, eight, nine, his job was to hold the tongs while his grandfather beat horseshoes on the anvil. The only instructions he ever received were "You better not flinch!" Because white hot flecks of metal would fly off the shoes, and land on his bare arms. A flinch in such a circumstance would earn you a whipping, so he learned to ignore the burning flecks of metal, and hang on to those tongs.
My father said his grandfather once had an abscessed tooth. He stuck an icepick into his forge for a few minutes, then he... well, I'll let my father describe it:
"He RAM it up there and let the pus drip out." My father would invariably move his forefinger up and down at this part of the story, to simulate the cascading pus droplets. He loved to tell that story.
Sterner stuff than I'm made out of, that's for sure. I get queasy popping a back zit.
My grandfather was a blacksmith in Germany (where he was born) and then did blacksmithing and mechanic work here in the States. He had the biggest damn hands I've ever seen on anyone. Even in his 80's I always got the impression he was stronger than anyone I ever knew. Had a helluva sense of humor too. I remember him sitting on our deck, drinking beer and singing pub songs...in German. He'd get that mischevious glint in his eye and you just knew he was gonna start something.
Posted by: zonker at March 20, 2005 8:54 PMGood post. I think I'm gonna read it to Miss Priss. Maybe it'll make her appreciate her cushy chores, as well as her dental visits.
Posted by: Key at March 20, 2005 10:00 PMThat's harsh.
I thought I was tough when I, as an uninsured college coed fucker, took an Exacto blade (doused in rubbing alkyhall, dontchaknow) to an infected cyst above my right eye. Enough pus came out to generously butter 5 or 6 pieces of toast.
But a heated awl to an infected tooth... I just don't think I could... Maybe if copious amounts of MadDog 20/20 were consumed prior...
Posted by: rightisright at March 20, 2005 10:02 PMMy grandfather owned the only set of dental pliers in Clay County, Kentucky for a while (He got them in some kind of trade). For fifty cents, he'd pull a tooth that needed pulling.
After a hefty shot of moonshine, the victim patient was put in a chair with two strong men to hold him down. Then, my grandfather grabbed that tooth in his pliers and snatched it out.
That was old-time dentistry.
Posted by: Acidman at March 21, 2005 11:48 AMRob, you beat me to it! I can't remember if it was my grandfather or great-grandfather was in the same situation in southeast OK. He had pulled enough teeth that he finally ordered a pair of actual dental pliers for it.
My dad still has them.
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