"Ken's got no teeth"

My Grandma Margaret and Grandpa Ken loved each other, they showed this in unusual but endearing ways including, trickery, jibes and ballroom dancing.

The story goes like this, they aren't the most pet friendly family (that gene sure skipped me as I wake up with a mouthful of cat fur each morning) only two pets over the years a dog named Ayeesha Inglebritensen and a budgie named George. My Grandpa was well known for two things his homegrown and made apricot jam and the fact he only missed two days of work in fifty years. When Grandpa had to have his teeth removed he simply stopped by the dentist on his way to work and had his teeth removed then jumped on his bike and off he went.

The teeth removal was much anticipated and around this time George kept my Grandma company in the kitchen. My granny is the robust-sized, kind-hearted, great-cook, fun-loving, squishy-hug-giving variety of Grannies. All day she worked throughout the house dealing with the wake of five children and the mess and food preparation that came with it while she worked she talked to George, "Ken's got no teeth, Ken's got no teeth, Ken's got no teeth!" she'd say. She encouraged her five children to school George to say, "Ken's got no teeth, Ken's got no teeth, Ken's got no teeth!"

They resounded to the fact that George would never speak let alone say, "Ken's got no teeth!”. Then one day as Grandpa walked through the back door George bobbed up and down on his perch screeching, "Ken's got no teeth, Ken's got no teeth, Ken's got no teeth!"  

It wasn’t often Granny outwitted Grandpa. The George and Grandpa story was one that had us all giggling through our tears when Grandpa passed away in late 2010. 

Kate O'Leary