A little “relates back to what I just read” kind of story, for personal nostalgia’s sake!
While I was writing my Goodreads book review of Ramona the Pest (cribbed from my Retroist article about the book, and written in the same weekend), I completely forgot about having a similar experience to Ramona Quimby in Kindergarten. Of course, I only remembered it the day after I published both articles.
Funny how that happens, am I right?
Anyway…
Loose Tooth
When I was in Kindergarten, I had two loose front teeth. I knew they were going to come out soon, but no matter how much wiggling I tried to do with my tongue, they didn’t budge. I had similar issues with loose teeth in later years of losing baby teeth (including a molar in third grade that I swore was going to fall out ANY TIME and wound up taking about three days longer than I anticipated!), but this one was, by far, the most memorable.
We were doing “seat work” (as it is called in the book), where you do exactly what the name implies – dittos while sitting at your assigned table. Right in the middle of my Kindergarten teacher, who was not young and perky like Miss Binney in the story – quite the opposite, actually, though not old or anything, just not young and perky – talking, it happened.
My two front teeth fell out right onto my desk.
No wiggling, no jostling, no motivation to fall out. They just…fell out. Right onto the table. For six-year-old me, it was loud! And of course, it happened in a pin-drop quiet classroom. It is always nice to know that six-year-old me set the “make a loud noise in a quiet room” standard I’ve lived my life by.
My teacher, while not the nicest, was apparently used to the sound of baby teeth falling out and hitting the table upon doing so (she was a Kindergarten teacher, after all), or perhaps someone at my table pointed out that it happened. It was thirty years ago, after all, so I don’t remember. What I do remember is that my teacher helped with the cleanup and made sure the teeth went into an envelope with a note for my mom about what happened.
I’m assuming the “Tooth Fairy” compensated me nicely for losing both teeth in the same day. Again, I don’t remember.
The Siblings Photo
Every year, my mom did portraits at the mall portrait studio (I think JC Penney or Sears), from the time my brother and I were toddlers until we were nine years old. The “age six” photos were – funnily enough – done right after the excitement of the “two front teeth” incident. So, giant gap in the mouth and all, my mom had our photos taken. It turned out to be a cute photo.
And in case you’re wondering, my brother lost his front teeth shortly after I did.
At home.
I like having the cool baby teeth story.