Memories of Charlton County - by Gibson and Mays Back to Table of Contents 7. MEMORIES OF A SMALL BOY (Pp 5-6) When I was a small child, dentists made
house calls. Whenever folks had a toothache they sent for the dentist and when he came, he brought his tooth-grinding machine with him. The machine was operated with "foot power" since there was no electricity back then. The dentist pumped the floor pedal on the grinder and that provided the power. One of my very earliest recollections is when I was about two years old and the dentist came to our house to fill one of Mama's teeth. I was allowed to lie on my belly
on the floor and watch the dentist's foot as he pedaled the grinding machine. That looked like a lots of fun to me! When I was very small Christmas was the best part of the year. I always jumped right out of bed on Christmas morning, anxious to see what Santa Claus had brought me. Although we didn't have a decorated tree like most families have now, we did hang our stockings up by the fireplace on Christmas Eve. Each of us children usually found one orange, one banana, one
apple and some raisins in our stocking. We thought Santa had only fruit tress and very few of them at that! One Christmas Eve Papa let me and my brothers, Harry and Elvie go with him to town. We were just yearlings back then. Papa's custom was to bring home a sack the day before Christmas that only he carried, and he didn't 1st the rest of the family know what was in it. On the way home, as we were sitting with him in the wagon, Papa asked us if we knew who Santa was.
Elvie and Harry said they knew and Papa said that since I didn't know, he would tell me. That conversation took all the joy out of Christmas for me and after that day, I didn't care for a long time if I even got out of bed on Christmas day. I got puny once when I was very small and Papa decided that the best thing he could do for me was to take me to Dr. Wright's office and get him to give me a physical examination. At that time Dr. Wright had a drug
store in connection with his office. Dr. Wright led me into the back room of the store and sat me down and said, "Stick out your tongue." I did. He said "Way out" and I did. He said loudly "As far as you can!" and my tongue wouldn't go out any further. He looked down my throat and said "Uh-HUH...Uh-HUH...Uh-HUH..." Then we left the examination room and went hack into the drug store where he gave me a dose of liver regulator. He charged Papa fifty cents or a dollar, but I'm inclined to think Papa paid a dollar for my physical examination. I was soon just as healthy as the rest of the children in the family! | 
