Let's Hear it for the Tooth Fairy

/National Tooth Fairy Day (8/22) 1083 words 8/29/24

Let's Hear It for the Tooth Fairy

Before I delve into a profile of the Tooth Fairy's appearances in my life, which may or may not amount to 1000 words, a few words about the 12 week activity now completed. A minimum of 1000 words per weekly response to the weekly prompts is far too many. In the future, I suggest it be 750 tops, or even 500. There are too many words to think of, and much too many words for the activity leader to read. Once you get behind, as I did, it takes a Herculean effort to catch up, which I did. I have enjoyed the exercise using National Days, some absurd, but most topics are serious. I have elected to use all but maybe 2 as biographical tales, which this one shall be. It points to the sentimental side and opinionated view of some topics. For others that seem non sensical are actually great topic to write about. I will definitely join the activity when it opens again. For now, I have selected a topic to talk about the tooth fairy.

First of all, the fairy is unisex. On some occasions, it is the generosity of a female who does not begrudge a kid for forgetting to put their tooth under their pillow, whose said tooth has not been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized, or the occasional sneaking of a tooth previously recognized to give the semblance they have not lost or failed to sanitize the cure actual lost tooth. You know moms keep those teeth in baggies. Where they go when the kid is grown is a quandary.

I ran across a baggie, the old kind that had no way to close it except folding over the top within itself, not the luxurious slide folders they have today, with my son’s teeth. I am sure my daughter’s will show up one day. The teeth look incredibly small. One obviously had a cavity which was rare because he was blessed with strong teeth, cavity resistant. It was difficult to retrieve the tooth with a sweet sleeping child on the pillow. Some nights I forgot but the husband unit would remember. I think we may have had one embarrassing moment when we both forgot and had to come up with a fairy’s excuse. I don’t remember what that excuse was, but it must have satisfied the child. I know that because in their twenties, when they started revealing all the things they disliked about their upbringing, that did not surface.

The fact that we did not take them to Disney World is the first item on their “I was a deprived child” list. That was followed closely by the “We never went camping as a family” complaint. Their list is long, but those are the only two I remember.

Let me make one thing clear, we were not stingy parents. Our two children receive a hefty allowance. They worked hard every Saturday which was family clean up the house day. I despise dirt and dust and clutter. Having the children help formed good habits for their adult life. I grew up with the motto “There is a place for everything, and everything in its place.” In addition, my favorite childhood book was “Cheaper by the Dozen.” You might remember that an efficiency expert father taught his children, and the world, how to make the most out of ordinary walks around the house. Carrying things from one place to another, stopping along the way to deposit such thing in its place while on the return trip, to one place in the house was encouraged. It could be proven to cut time spent keeping the wretched clutter away thus making the house more organized and pleasant for everyone in the family. Because we were all about family, together we took pride in our home and taking good care of our possessions.

Washing vehicles was part of Saturday’s cleaning routine. We also had a self-cleaning oven which you needed to set in motion by setting it on self clean, pulling up the aluminum panel to prevent your glass window panel from breaking during the clean cycle, and being responsible for wiping out the inside of errant ash left on the bottom of the stove when the cleaning was complete. I always volunteered for that job. I had all the easy ones. The kids, for whatever reason, loved to spray and wipe the windows. The house we had at the time we regularly performed Saturday cleanups had amazingly few windows. They would argue over who would do the back sliding glass door. Scrubbing down the shower stalls was another of their favorites. Eventually, I let go of my favorite household chore which was vacuuming. Another popular chore.

I liked bossing them around, with love and compassion, which would prepare me for my years of supervising young people answering phones at a couple of businesses. I would use the same compassion to dole out the tasks I did to give them valuable experience, developmental guidance, and skills they would use as one or more received promotions. There is a lot to be said having kept statistics or recording attendance figures as was needed to be done manually back before computers. People love helping their bosses. If gives them the chance to interact with the person responsible for giving them their raises. The younger generation were smart!

Back to the tooth fairy. At that time, in the 80s, the going rate for a regular, non descript tooth was $1.00. Molars were $2.00. Not the dimes and quarters of our youth, but enough to convince them that losing teeth meant growing older and more independent. We taught independence regularly. We wanted them to be prepared to face the requirements of being adults in a world where eventually they would be the ones giving orders, and responsible for keeping their homes clean and taking over the tooth fairy duties.

Which, by the way, they have taken to a whole new level. My grandson is ready to pull out his teeth at the very sign they are loose. They are worth $20.00 a tooth! His little bank is full of those bills, which he plans to save to buy his first car. He is 12.

This brings me to the 1000+ words required for this last of a dozen stories told once a week. I have turned in three on time, I believe, so I don’t expect to receive any rewards. The fact I completed the activity is reward enough for me. This last word is #1083.