THE DAY MY COUSIN GOT
TRENCH MOUTH
There was no way of not
knowing that my uncle liked to drink on the weekends. I’d been around him
enough as young girl to notice that: He was married to my mom’s sister. And I spent a lot of time at their house in
St. Albans for my parents and I lived there as well and our house was pretty
close to theirs.
I knew my parents
knew that he drank; they even knew that his brothers did as well. But he never
drank on a work day or evening—he saved drinking for the weekend.
My aunt and uncle had
a son and a daughter: I was two years older than their son and four years older
than their daughter. For some reason on
a hot summer Saturday I was in my uncle’s car:
Two of his brothers were in the front seat and my male cousin and I were
in the back. I was nine and he was seven: He kept pinching me and I kept
telling him to stop it but it did no good; even my uncle knew that his son was
doing that and hollered at him to quit. Didn’t work.
The day was as hot as
all get out and at that time no car had air conditioning—you just suffered and
prayed that the car windows were rolled down. And they were.
My uncle pulled up in
front of a bar that was near a movie theater that I knew really well: I had
seen that bar but certainly had never been in it that is until that moment. He
parked the car, I watched his brothers get out, my cousin get out and so I
followed them all inside. It was almost pitch dark inside with a few lights
scattered here; the long bar had a lot of lights behind it and bar stools were
in front of it. My uncle and his
brothers sat down on stools as did my cousin so I figured I’d better do the
same.
They ordered cold
beer and Cokes for my cousin and me. That cold Coke was wonderful to drink and
most of mine was gone; I looked over and he was not drinking his Coke but was
drinking some leftover beer out of a bottle that had been left by someone on
the counter. I heard my uncle scream at him but it didn’t do any good for my cousin
kept drinking out of someone else’s beer bottle. Seemed about an hour or so
that we were in there and luckily it wasn’t far from my aunt and uncle’s house.
Of course my uncle and his brothers had glass beer bottles in the front seat
and were drinking out of them.
How was I supposed to
know that was illegal? But it wasn’t illegal to take kids in a bar at that
time: I’m not sure if I ever told my
parents that day what had happened but the next day I would have to tell them
because that was the day that my cousin got trench mouth. My aunt called my mom
and told her that his lips were so big that they were turned inside out! She
went into hysterics, called the local doctor and jerked him into the car so my
mom told me and he was given some kind of medicine.
It wasn’t nice to
think but I thought that it served him right for pinching me all the way to
that bar and not minding his dad. I’d never seen anyone with trench mouth until
I saw him that Sunday evening. His mouth was so big that it went up to his nose
and seemed to stretch across his entire face.
As he was prone to
do, he had a crying fit and although I’m sure his mouth hurt, I reasoned that
he should never have drunk from someone else’s half empty beer bottle. Both of
my cousins [as well as me] had been taught to never drink from someone else’s
bottle or glass and seeing him made me realize why we had been taught that
lesson.
And I had to explain
to my parents how he got it and where we were which did not go over well for
let’s just say that was the first and last time that my uncle ever took me into
a bar with his brothers and with his son.
And trust me, I was
terrified of getting trench mouth for seeing my cousin with it was a horrid
sight but don’t blame me when I didn’t feel sorry for him—he did it to himself
I reasoned as much as a nine year old could. And he didn’t listen to his dad.
Of course my uncle could have gotten off his bar stool and taken that bottle
away from him but he was pretty far gone beer-wise and was more interested in his
own drinking.
Maybe my cousin
wanted to be like him and his uncles. Who knows? His mom was furious at my
uncle for taking us there in the first place and even more furious at her son. All I know is that he had a horrid case of
trench mouth and that was the first and last time I ever witnessed it for I
never saw another person get it --other than my cousin.
Sherry Hill
©Sherry Hill 2016
All Rights Reserved
