Railway lines

Did you have braces when you were at school?
I did. And so did about half of my class at some point. As soon as we hit high school, on came the railways. This would probably be the worst time to be made even more awkward: puberty, hormones, bad skin, growing desires, and then you impose a chastity belt on your teeth. When I got mine, I did not think they were that bad. I wasn't into the creative elastic arrangements in different colours because they would draw even more attention to my mouth.

Once, I was chewing gum, and the stupid ball got caught behind my braces: my teeth were lined with gum.Gum gum gum everywhere. And then one can't go pulling it out in the middle of class. Now I am laughing at how embarrassed I was, but it is really quite funny. Shame.

I had braces for my first kiss. Luckily he did not. I wonder if two people with them can really get stuck? If they can interlock somehow and then one stands there, literally lip-locked. That must be quite a story to tell at a dinner table twenty years later.

Strange how the youth of my generation have mostly had braces. We have all had metal-mouths. Perhaps this feeds from the now-ingrained obsession with what we look like. And teeth do seem to play a rather vital role there. No one is content with theirs, we seem to want super-white sparkly straight teeth, like we see in the Colgate adverts. Just thinking about the British one thinks of bad teeth, or about how Tom Cruises's look a lot more perfect that they did in Top Gun.

I am glad I had braces. I am glad everything is on the straight and narrow ( well, sort of). But now, years after having been freed form the constraints, years after sliding my tongue over smooth teeth, they are starting to separate again, especially between the front two. The teeth have a mind of their own. No, it is probably a genetic predisposition to imperfect incisors.

And to be honest, I would rather have a tiny ( haha let's hope it stays small) gap between my front teeth than to wear braces again for years, only to have them tell you every time you think you will get them off that "we should wait a bit longer".  Maybe puberty is the ideal time to have them, if required. One is so unadapted  in any case at that point, a bit more awkwardness should do no permanent harm. Well, your first kiss might be a bit disappointing, but I think that had nothing to do with the railways.


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