The First........Lie

Recently I blogged about the guy that keeps me smiling, Doc Simons.  Not far from my thoughts when I think of Doc is the first dentist I went to. Probably if you are "of age"  and lived in Shinglehouse he was your dentist too.  Dr. Paul Kapp, he was also a friend in later years to our family.  His sons were friends with my brother Jerry.  In fact Jerry and Jack Kapp were in the Air Force together.  Jerry a crew chief and Jack a pilot of a fighter jet.  My 16 year old grandson had the opportunity to meet Jack a couple years ago.  I was so happy because Jack has great stories to tell as a fighter  pilot.  We don't have many of the 75+ year old military to "pass on"  their experiences so when you get a chance have them to tell their story.  In most cases they are waiting to relive some of the most exciting times of their lives.

Oops!  Back to Doc Kapp.  I remember the first time I lied and it was to Dr.and Flora Kapp.  Remember their office was only a Shinglehouse block (small) from the elementary school.  Mom would send the note and I would get out of school and walk to the dentist.  The lie,  I had it made up the night before and played it over and over.  You know I thought I was really quite smart to think up such a good one.  When I got to Doc Kapps the first thing I said........I have a test and the teacher told me not to be long.  So if I have a cavity I will have to come back another day.  He checked my teeth and of course I had a couple cavities.  What I never thought of....Doc had Flora call the school to see if he had time to fill them!  Why of course he could.  Instantly I am sick to my stomach.  Going to Dr. Kapp took days of setting my mind to it.  If you went to him you will remember that huge drill that had some kind of big rubber belt that made the drill turn at an agonizing slow, bumpy, thunky (fake word), jar your head turn.  My gosh it felt like he had a jackhammer in my mouth!  If that's not bad enough I did not like the smell of his breath, I had a hard time catching his pattern of breathing in and out.  I tried to take in fresh air when he did and let is out the same time.  I'm sure he missed a few breaths on purpose!  His wife Flora was M E A N, or that was my take on her.  She never smiled and always wore dark red lipstick that kinda smeared in the corners.  I often wondered, what did she do behind that door and how did she know when to come in just at the right time?  Well that's my little girl memory of Dr. and Flora Kapp.  My big gal memory of Doc was him knocking on our door when I was about 30.  He had retired and moved to Ft.Meyers, Fl.  He would come back north for a couple months in the summer.  From that first knock he visited us every summer, wrote letters during the year and always sent a box of fruit to us for Christmas.  He asked us to come visit him in Fl which we did.  We stayed a couple days and got to see the scare of our life!  He lived on a canal with alligators in it.  At early evening he would take meat scraps out, the big alligator would come out of the water and crawl to Doc and he would hand it the meat!  We were terrified.  This alligator could have munched this 80 year old man in a blink.  Dick even told him how dangerous it was.  I'm sure he fed that gator for the rest of his time.

The snow moved in today.  It really is beautiful, especially seeing it on the ground and balancing on the bare branches.  The air smells clean and fresh, one of those evenings to take a walk and cleanse the mind.  Plus it might help us stay awake.  It seems like every time the time changes it takes us longer and longer to adjust.

We had 4 eggs hatch in June, 3 boys and 1 girl.  Little Daphne
is now a pullet!  She laid her first egg this morning. In a few
days it will be the size of the big egg.  A very exciting
 event at Cook'n by the Creek ♡