Meanwhile with McKiever : Before we knew it could be dangerous
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008
Many years ago, a new dentist set up his practice in a little town close to Anson, Texas, where I grew up. Word spread quickly that he was great with children. He was even offering special rates on back-to-school check-ups for kids.
My mother and my Aunt Claudine made appointments for Cousin Eddie and me. We all piled into Mother's 1953 Plymouth sedan. Eddie was my age and we played the license-plate game. All the winner has to do is spot the most distant state but there wasn't much highway traffic that day. We only saw three vehicles, all with Texas tags.
The new dentist stepped out to his small, clean lobby to meet all of us. He put me in the dental chair first. Eddie was next. We both had good check-ups. As our moms were paying the receptionist, the dentist brought us "a little something. "That's what he called it when he handed over small, clear tubes holding something silver.
Looking at the tubes in our hands, the dentist pointed to them.
"Now that's mercury," he explained. "If you rub it on a dime, you'll have the shiniest coin you ever saw. You have to be careful, though, because if you spill it, it's really hard to pick up. Mercury is what I make fillings out of when somebody has a cavity. Brush your teeth like I showed you and y'all won't have to get fillings, OK ?"
OK, OK, OK, doc. We just wanted to get a dime from our mothers and cover it with the silver stuff like he said. We nearly wore our little thumbs out rubbing mercury on stuff all the way back to Anson. We dolled up the door handles in the back seat of the Plymouth. We wanted to shine up Aunt Claudine's glasses but she refused to hand them over.
Sure enough, just like the dentist warned, we both spilled the mercury and it split into a thousand little beads on the kitchen floor at my house. We spent half an hour chasing it to put back in the clear tubes. I had just enough left to impress my dad. When he came home from work, I told him I had a magic trick to show him. Could he just give me a dime ?
He was appropriately amazed. He mentioned that the mercury the dentist gave us sure beat the suckers Dr. Andrus handed out. Did it ever. Well, it was before anyone knew about mercury poisoning. At least the news hadn't reached west Texas yet. Nowadays we're warned to be careful about the fish we eat in case we ingest too much mercury from them. The tiny amount of mercury in an old-fashioned thermometer has warnings on it: "Danger - Dispose of mercury properly. "Cousin Eddie and I must be lucky - neither one of us suffered any consequences. We just had a lot of fun shining up the world that day.
••• Tonya McKiever is a reporter for The Benton County Daily Record. Her column appears on Sundays.
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