No White Fairy Rats

Hurricane lost his first tooth the other day. It is a milestone of sorts, telling one and all that you have become a bigger boy than you were just a day before. It is also one of the first ways for a person to earn money. It’s a tough way to make a buck, but no worse than selling blood and infinitely better than selling a kidney. Somehow, looking at a kid that is missing a tooth makes them even cuter. It’s a good thing too, because when they reach the age of losing teeth they have also gained the knowledge and ability to drive their parents insane.

 

I was wondering today just where the whole concept of a tooth fairy came from. I am pretty sure that there isn’t some 13^th century saint that went around taking kid’s teeth and giving gifts for them made by elves. If there was a guy like that, he wouldn’t be sainted, more than likely he would be stoned. Not in the good way.

In early European tradition they would bury the babies teeth when they fell out. Now, whether they believed that was the way kids grew I just can’t say. I do know more than a few women that wouldn’t object to picking their baby off of a tree instead of giving birth the regular way. Wikipedia says that it was tradition to pay the kid when the sixth tooth came out and to place money under the pillow. An American study in 2011 found that the average amount paid for a tooth was $2.60. That is up quite a bit from the quarter that I got. I say a quarter, trying to paint a rosy picture of my parents, but more than likely it was a nickel or a dime.

This whole idea of giving money for lost teeth is a little suspicious to me. I think that the idea was invented by a consortium of dentists and candy makers. They have the most to gain from the “Tooth Fairy”. The candy makers have generation after generation of kids that have mouthfuls of cash which is paid out at more or less regular intervals and they have not learned anything about saving. Prime consumers! The dentists have an obvious interest in kids eating as much candy as they can get their hands on. Kids are just walking luxury cars and Hawaiian condos to them.

This money gifting for teeth is a western tradition, but other countries have their own traditions. In Italy, France and Belgium the Tooth Fairy is replaced by a little mouse. In Lowland Scotland the fairy mouse is replaced by a white fairy rat that purchases teeth with coins. If that doesn’t give kids nightmares, nothing will. In Japan the kids throw the upper teeth straight down to the ground and the bottom teeth straight into the air in the hope that their teeth will grow in straight. Maybe the Scottish and English should try this method, it couldn’t hurt.

I kind of like the idea of giving kids money for teeth. Well, I really liked getting money for teeth when I was a kid, and now that I am at the other end of my life, it seems it would be a good idea to get money for the teeth I am losing. Not a lot, just enough to pay for the dentures would be nice. But no white, fairy rats if you don’t mind.

Thanks Again

I guess I should wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a very nice meal on Saturday and have been bingeing on leftovers all weekend. Being the “older” part of the family is not the same as being “younger” in the same family. The “older” usually will host the meal and the “younger” come to eat the meal. Often the “younger” have two “older” families to share thanks with and end up with near terminal case of sleeping sickness due to over dosing on tryptophan. I guess that they have proven that turkey doesn’t make you sleepy. Better wake all of those snoozing family members up and tell them that they aren’t tired according to the scientists.

 

I was wondering why we Canadians celebrate our Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October and the Americans have their Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. I guess it kind of makes sense that we would have an earlier Thanksgiving, because our growing season is shorter and therefore the harvest (the reason for thanks) comes sooner in the higher latitudes. Personally, I think I would rather have a later Thanksgiving which is followed by Black Friday and oodles of sales, just in time for Christmas.

 

It turns out that Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving long before our neighbours to the south did. In 1578 Martin Frobisher while looking for a route to the orient ended up founding a settlement on what is now Newfoundland and took the opportunity to give thanks for surviving the trip safely. Around this same time, French settlers were giving thanks for a good harvest and invited the local Indians to share their bounty. I guess the lying and stealing of land would come later.

 

I can remember Thanksgiving feasts when I was a kid. Of course I don’t remember anything about the preparation or the pain in the ass it must have been for the adults, but I do remember good food and hanging out with my cousins. We kids would be able to have pretty much all of the pop and chips we wanted. We would run and play, argue and even fight for a couple of hours before supper. We would play card games and listen to stories that Gram would tell us. Interesting to note and sad at the same time, my Gram passed away on this day in 1987. I think of her often and when I am with my grandkids I try to be as good a grand parent as she was. I fall far behind of course, but she is the yard stick that I use to measure how well I am doing.

Now I am all weepy and sad. I can still smell Gram’s house whenever I go into an antique store. When I see a little old lady dressed in a rainbow of colours I think of Gram. My youngest daughter looked amazingly like Gram when she was a baby and we put a grey wig on her. I have a picture of Gram taken during the war and she was very lovely. Maegan has the same good looks and I think carries some of Gram’s spirit.

I guess I have so much to give thanks for, but right now…at this precise time, I give thanks for having had a great grandmother, fantastic mom and dad, wonderful, loving wife, three brilliant amazing kids and their significant others and of course I thank all of the Gods in heaven and on earth for letting me live to love Hurricane and Tornado.