A friendly toothless smile in old-time Phoenix


Today while I was out pedaling around, enjoying the beautiful weather of Peoria (a suburb of Phoenix), I saw a car come to a stop in the center lane of the road (the turning lane), put on its emergency flashers, and then just sit there. I hesitated, looked, and as I saw an elderly woman in the driver's seat I asked if everything was OK. It was, and she smiled and gave me a wonderful toothless grin. She was just going to get out of her car to go to the mailbox (it wasn't a terribly busy street), and we parted with good wishes. And then it occurred to me that I hadn't seen a friendly toothless smile for many, many years.

My grandmother used to say that her teeth were like stars - they came out at night. But I never saw her without her teeth in. My landlady at the Saguaro Apartments, back in 1977, would often go around without her teeth in. She liked me, and I remember her smile, and the slightly-slurred speech that went along with not having your teeth in. By the way, after I graduated from college I went back to visit her, and she hugged me and called me her "big boy".

Of course now I'm thinking about old-time Phoenix, at about the time of this ad, which was 1900, and the number of friendly toothless smiles you would get on a regular basis. I'm inclined to think that most people couldn't afford a set of teeth, and just went without. When their teeth went, they were gone. And I'm sure that they still smiled.

I disagree with people who insist that someone has to have perfect teeth to have a great smile. A friendly smile comes from the heart, not the dentist.
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