Braces

My niece on the right is a student at one of our better private schools here in Southern California. Pops sent me something from their brochure - this scanned photo. We are naturally all very proud of our kids, and I would take this moment to remind ourselves that there are a lot of extraordinarily good things in our society that we have been getting right for a long time. I am reminded of the very fact that I too attended private school in Southern California. That was over 30 years ago.

My family could never afford orthodontics for us kids when we were growing up. I can recall knowing from the time I was in the sixth grade that the cost of braces were as much as 5 months of mortgage payments on the house I grew up in. It seemed to me an extraordinarily rich thing to do. Today it seems that everybody uses seven dollar toothbrushes, whiteners and cetera. I think I'll always think of advanced dentistry as a luxury and the mark of affluence and I suppose now that I've written about it, I'll take that as one more sign that we've made progress as a family.

Next week is Thanksgiving. I'm grateful already.