If it wasn't enough to have two operations that year, I also had to start having all my teeth extracted. Not even sixteen years old yet! The dentist said they were too soft and breaking all up. It was a very embarrassing time for me. I hated going to school. Here I was on crutches with a cast on one foot and a brace on the other one. I was always trying to hide my mouth and very seldom talked to anyone because of it. Some of the guys on the bus made fun of me. And here I am at the age where I liked boys. In fact, a boy that I had met while babysitting in Frankfort called to the neighbor's house next door to talk to me. ( We never had a phone) He asked me if I wanted to go to the movies on Saturday night. I told him I'd meet him on the corner by the bank. He hadn't seen me in a while so I had to tell him I'd have crutches and half my teeth out. Well, he stood me up. I guess that was too much for him to handle.. I didn't blame him really. I can't even remember his name. Ha! His father had dated that woman that I babysat for. That's how I met him. It was a very bad time in my life. I felt like hiding at home but I had to go to school. I was let out five minutes earlier than the other kids from all my classes so I'd have time to get up or down the stairs with my crutches.
My brothers and sisters made fun of me too. But me, being the joker that I was, would just make funny faces at the little ones and they'd laugh.
Eventually I got my new teeth and I felt so much better but still didn't like having false teeth. It made me ashamed. I felt even more like a poor kid from across the tracks. In this photo you can see how I wouldn't open my mouth and would actually try to puff my lips a little so no one would notice I didn't have teeth.
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