The lost tooth...

As wheat harvest looms (All Aboard Wheat Harvest - check it out on Facebook, Twitter, allaboardharvest.com and High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal) I was asked about a childhood memory from my own harvest experience, and this is what I came up with.

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I once got a dollar for a tooth. Yes, one tooth earned me a crisp dollar. It was 1987 which meant I was bleeping rich.

I scored big because I lost my tooth in the middle of a wheat field, and I swallowed it.


During wheat harvest it’s customary to have a six o’clock meal in the field. I can still smell the grease and diesel on Dad and Grandpa’s clothes and hands right before they’d wash their hands in an ice cream bucket full of soapy water. Funny, because I can't smell very well now.

During harvest Great-Grandma and Grandpa usually came out at meal time to check out what was going on. We would sit on homemade stools that were painted John Deere yellow and ate at a folding table or the tailgate of the pickup. There were staples like cucumbers in vinegar with onions, and iced tea in a big yellow jug (which, we still use).

As we enjoyed our dinner and listened to the condition of the crop I realized my mouth was bleeding. To a 6 year old this is a huge deal, it was my first lost tooth! Kids get stickers for crap like that during school. Sidenote - I missed out on reward stickers again because I had a summer birthday which meant I didn’t get to wear a paper crown on my birthday, or go first in line, and then I lose my first tooth in the summer too! No wonder I have issues. I digress.

I likely cried because I don’t do blood. I don't remember, or I've repressed it because let's face it - blood is scary.

“I think she swallowed it,” Mom said.

Now, in my little head I’m thinking death would come in literally hours. I mean, if gum wouldn’t digest for seven years - a tooth, well, I didn’t want to think about it.

This is where Great Grandpa swept in and made everything better - with his wallet in the form of George Washington. The buck was to make up for the fact that I didn’t have anything for the Tooth Fairy because she was one tough broad. No tooth, no money - and let’s be honest I could have used that quarter. Great Grandpa was my tooth insurance, and I cashed in big with my claim (and no paperwork).

We didn’t know it then, but that was Great Grandpa’s last harvest with us, which makes that memory that much richer - because I was already rich.