As each day passes with my three young children I become more and more aware of the sacrifices that my own parents made for my brothers and I when we were children. There were so many things that we just took for granted. One such sacrifice that came to mind most recently is healthy and straight teeth. My brothers and I and spent in excess of 20 plus combined years going to the orthodontist and I am quite sure my father single handily paid our orthodontist harbor front home mortgage most of that time. It didn’t stop at the orthodontist, we all three had at the very least three major oral surgeries a piece from wisdom teeth, to gum grafts to pediatric molars that just simply would not come out, dad spent thousands of dollars for our pearly whites instead of buying himself a bigger boat.
I distinctly remember fishing offshore with my father in my early twenties not too long after all that dental work. On this occasion I was re-rigging a 50-pound mono outfit and cut the line with my two front teeth. I had been using my teeth for years to cut mono but this was the first time my father had ever witnessed me abusing my high dollar teeth first hand. Dad had a sheer look of horror on his face at first that quickly turned to a very stern expression followed by “I better never see you do that again.” I was in my twenties but my dad had every right and I knew it. “Use the right tool for the job son,” and he passed me his pair of rigging pliers.
As the years rolled on I would still on occasion use my teeth when dad was not around, but I at very least looked for my pliers first or at least didn’t cut anything over 20 pound test. Fast forward to present time and I usually spend several minutes looking for the pliers before I break down and use my teeth.
A couple of weeks back my family and I were in the keys on vacation. The blue tooth receiver for the stereo died one afternoon on the boat and knowing how much my family enjoys the boat radio when we are relaxing on the boat I knew I had better fix it.