[Keith Seymore]

Do you grind your teeth?

May as well do one more, while I'm thinking of it....

Dad was raised in the poor rural south in the 30's and 40's. He came Michigan in the mid 50's, along with scores of others moving north to seek employment in the great automotive factories of that era.

Somewhere as a youth he had contracted "trenchmouth" (or "hoof and mouth disease"), probably from drinking at a public well. As such, his teeth were really bad. One of the first things he did when he joined GM and got some good health care benefits was have all of his teeth pulled and a set of false teeth made. Keep in mind he did this even though he was a relatively young man (early twenties at that point).

He had that same set of teeth for the rest of his life. Part of the reason for this, probably, is that "mechanically inclined guy" that he was he could perform a lot of "false teeth maintenance" for himself. For example, if he had a spot that was causing a sore place on his gum he would just take out his die grinder or some sandpaper and polish the offending area until it didn't cause pain anymore.

Unfortunately, discretion was not one of his strong points. He liked to tell about a time when he was working on a die...

(...Picture this: him up inside one of those big "press like" machines, wearing his blue/grey coveralls, covered with sweat and grinding dust inside this dimly lit, oily, loud, manufacturing plant...)

...when he realized he had his teeth were hurting his gums. So, right there inside this die, he pulls his teeth out and grinds on the bad spot, polishing it off with some sandpaper he had nearby. Once he was satisfied with the fix he popped his teeth back in his mouth, rolled them around to his satisfaction and --- looked up to see the Plant Manager standing in the aisleway looking at him in disbelief.

After an awkward moment of recognition, the Plant Manager shook his head, as if to say "...tell me I didn't just see what I think I saw..." and walked away.

Dad meekly went back to work and finished his shift.

I should add that his teeth fit so well (plus he had immediately dropped the uppers in the sink and chipped one of the front teeth, making them not so perfect) that most people did not even know. We kids thought it was cool that he could take them out and brush them and always suggested he could wash them in the dishwasher. It didn't hurt, either, that he would entertain us by rolling them around in his mouth (but only when he thought Mom wasn't looking).

On the other hand, there was the time he sneezed while making a left turn and blew his uppers out into the intersection of Woodward and 14 Mile...and had to dodge traffic to retrieve them....