Message #293737

[franksolich]

Some time before leaving Lincoln and moving, I had my usual check-up with a dentist, who as usual had noticed nothing wrong--I had been born with excellent teeth--but thought perhaps it was time for the four wisdom teeth to come out, as they seemed to be shifting, moving so as to interfere with the neighboring teeth.

"A quick and easy job," he told me, showing me the x-rays.  "See how the roots grow straight down, rather than curving?  These should pop out like nothing."

And then he quoted me a price of $160.

I commented I would think about it; I was more interested in my impending move, and as it did not seem anything serious, it could wait.  And besides, $160 would pay for a great deal of mileage eastward.

And so I moved to Allentown.  My college degree, a B.A. in the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth, had not given me any marketable skill in the working world (something I was long ago aware of anyway), but upon hours of arriving in that city, I was hired by a wholesale hardware distributor based upon the fulsome recommendation of my former employer, a wholesale hardware distributor in Nebraska.

I then obtained a place to live, about ten blocks west of the "downtown," the commercial sector, of Allentown.  It was the third floor of an antique rowhouse in a congested neighborhood.  The neighborhood boasted a variety of people, but also a substantial plurality of those of Greek extraction, many of whom did not speak English.

In fact, the landlord was such a Greek, using his 14-year-old son as a translator when we made the deal.  I offered to pay the rent in drachmae instead of dollars, but the joke fell flat with him.  Other than not having a sense of humor, the landlord was an okay guy.

Once settled and established in a new place and a new job, I sought the services of a dentist.  He found nothing wrong with the teeth, as usual, but like the dentist in Lincoln, suggested that I have the four wisdom teeth pulled.

"A quick and easy job," he told me, showing me the x-rays.  "See how the roots grow straight down, rather than curving?  These should pop out like nothing."

And then he quoted me a price of $160.

I commented I would think about it.

I fretted about it that evening, reluctant to spend so much money on something ostensibly so "easy."  While sitting on the roof, I voiced my concerns to the landlord's son, who was a frequent visitor, as I presented a phenomenon rarely, if ever, seen before, that of a deaf person who "seemed" to be able to hear.

The landlord's son, in a kinder and gentler age, would have been known as a "smart alec," but other than that, he was an okay kid.

He suggested he knew someone who could do the job for cheap; not a dentist, but a guy who knew dentistry.  A native of Greece, he had started off in dental school in that country, but part of the way through, decided to come to America instead, where he was now a plumber.

temporarily interrupted and locked because the cats Abbie, Snow, Harold, Ellie, Gustav, William, and Decker appear to have cornered a coyote atop the William Rivers Pitt, and I have to go out to rescue the coyote