Childhood memory #2

Childhood memory number 1 is HERE.

When I was around 4 or 5, I had blackened teeth. Too much chocolate, my mother said. I was too young (I was told) for teeth extraction, or maybe I wailed whenever they tried bringing me to a dentist, I forget now.

I didn't want to smile whenever my photo would be taken that it reached a point when my father would get mad at me because I would just curl my lips and refuse to show ANY part of the insides of my mouth that had black teeth. Black teeth. Black teeth. Blackteethblackteethblackteeth. I really thought then that the world would disappear if I smiled even once at a camera, I mean, black teeth? Black teeth!

The point is, I assume that 40% of all the people in the world had blackened teeth when they were young (heck, 90%, even), I just wish I knew (or believed) then that it was okay to smile at a camera showing blackened baby teeth, I mean, I would've had a blast now looking at photos of me with black teeth, but instead, I see photos of a little girl who just curled her lips and refused to show her black teeth.

It would've been cool if I smiled really wide, is all.