Of Dentists and Dentures

Gowrie had one dentist, Herman Johnson, and I recall having some dental work done by him (his office was upstairs in one of the stores along the south side of the main street of the town, perhaps the Gowrie Savings Bank or the Bowman drug store). Clarice I believe had some teeth braces for a while, but not too effectively as she had an eye tooth that was never correctly aligned as an adult.

Dental work was one of the casualties of the Depression years and except for occasional efforts by my mother to get us to brush our teeth, our teeth received little attention. Until I was in my late twenties I never gave my teeth much attention either but then there were symptoms of toothache and decay and I started to pay some attention to them. I inquired at the first aid department at Shell for a recommendation and started going to a Dr. Hudson. When I started with him, I think he had just started practicing on Bancroft Avenue in Berkeley just below the intersection with Telegraph Avenue. He operated with one assistant who acted as a receptionist or dental assistant whenever needed. Unlike dentists nowadays (at least those we use here in Ashland) he did all the teeth cleaning, X-ray taking, etc. as well as the more professional dental services. Later on he moved to more elegant quarters down on Telegraph Avenue a ways. He proved to be an excellent dentist, though he was not particularly gentle at times.

By the time of my marriage I had had most of the neglected dental work done and at Hudson’s suggestion the work was all gold crowns or inlays. From that time on it was mostly an annual cleaning though there may had been occasional inlay work. As an indication of the quality of his work only one tooth that he put a crown on gave trouble at a later date. This tooth was probably dead and the crown came loose while we were on a trip through Houston in 1980. I had some emergency repair there and when we got back to Ashland the dentist here did a root canal and put on a new crown.

Hudson had either an English or possible an Australian background. His hobby was acting as the unpaid coach of the California rugby team, at least I think he was unpaid. I once referred to the sport as soccer and I was informed in no uncertain terms that soccer was not the same as rugby. It often happened that when I was in the dental chair he would be called to the phone, obviously on rugby matters. The conversations could be quite lengthy at times. Meanwhile I was sitting with dental equipment in my mouth.

Hudson was older than I — in the Cal monthly [magazine] that Jean gets as a lifetime member of the Cal alumni association, there was an article a year or so ago (2002–2004) that reported his death and remarked on his days as the rugby coach. During his tenure as coach the Cal team was highly successful.

While I am on the subject of teeth I want to add a few random recollections. I can see for example my father vigorously brushing his teeth during the time we were living on the farm. He would get a cup with salt water in it and with his toothbrush go outside the house on the rear lawn and go to it. I don’t think he brushed his teeth with any regularity however. But he and my mother eventually had dentures, first my mother and then my father. I think this was after I left home at least in the case of my father. Wherever he got his false teeth, they did not fit too well and when he was eating you could hear them clicking against each other.

It seems to me that my sister Clarice also had false teeth but I am not sure. My grandmother Peterson had false teeth and the story is that when she decided to get them, she had her remaining teeth extracted without anesthesia in the lobby of one of the hotels in Gowrie. Perhaps the dentist was an individual traveling from one town to the next, plying his trade as he went. In a way I find the story a little hard to believe but I have no specific reason for discounting it.

Another recollection I have from a time much later in my life, after our retirement to Ashland. We came acquainted with a retired couple, Albert and Gladys Ernst. Albert had false teeth but didn’t like to have them in his mouth except when he was eating. So he would put them into his mouth before a meal and take them out afterward. He was very adept at doing this so even if you were watching closely it was virtually impossible to see the actual transfer, either in or out. We had a considerable contact with the Ernsts over a period of years, including dinners at the church we both attended and dinners during visits in our respective homes — in all of these there was only once when I thought that I caught Albert in moving his teeth, either in or out, but even then I was not really sure. I don’t suppose that I would have ever known about Albert’s practice had it not been that Gladys confided to Jean about it.