Stanley Marsden wrote to Home Truths to tell us about .. his mother's fruit knife!
Stanley is 76. Lately he's begun handing memorabilia from his own childhood to his children. One item was a small fruit knife, about three-and-a-half inches long, which belonged to his mother. His children wanted to know the story behind it. As Stanley tells it, it reveals glimpses of the larger social and medical picture, behind the personal memories of his mother.
Stanley was about 11 years old when his mother became pregnant with his younger brother. He remembers her having very beautiful and very strong teeth. However, signs of gum infection were detected by the doctor, which he believed was poisoning the child in the womb and told her Stanley's mother that she must have all of her teeth taken out - which she did. Stanley remembers, "Every tooth was removed - these beautiful teeth - and the next memory that comes along is these big false teeth which were porcelain. They used to drop, and the raspberry seeds would get under my mother's plate, and she would half-turn away to clear them with her tongue... The false teeth in those days weren't very sharp, so you had to have a fruit knife to break the skin of the fruit... A lot of people then had had their teeth removed."
Stanley's brother has indeed suffered from poor health throughout his life, with prostate, spine and lung trouble. But Stanley feels that the doctor's diagnosis of gum disease was misleading. He believes that the likely explanation is malnutrition in the womb caused by his mother not receiving the right diet. The condition of his mother's gums indicated that her own level of nutrition was being sapped by pregnancy and needed attention. "In 1933 medicine was comparatively primitive - all a doctor would do is call and tap your chest and get you to put your tongue out.." says Stanley, who'll also be passing on a hobbing iron to his children. But that's another story!
