The Dentist, the Foxes and the Dog
A Grandpa Bennett Lindsay storyTold by Ben Lindsay
July 11, 2009

As we were looking at beautiful old original photos in Alyce Anderson Brown's album, my husband Steve asked Uncle Ben when Grandpa Bennett Lindsay lost his hair. Ben said,"He lost his hair and his teeth in his 30s!" We all remarked, "His teeth, too!" Ben continued saying,"Since Grandpa lost his teeth so early he made sure that his children went to the dentist often and for anything they needed. He said some of that time was during the Depression when money was scarce. So Grandpa made a trade with the dentist, his services for a fox. After several visits to the dentist, the foxes had totaled several foxes. Grandpa agreed to raise the foxes and then give either the pelts or the money from the pelts to the dentist as trade. After earning several foxes, the dentist started to come over to the house to ask to see the foxes. Grandpa got tired of that and after a while would turn to his dog and say, "Sig im, sig im." The dog would take off over to the dentist and he would jump in his car and drive away. The dentist then began to drive past the house and up the road to directly to the foxes pen, without permission to take a look at "his" foxes. Grandpa would do the same thing and tell his dog, "Sig im". The dog ran up the road and would bark and bark until the dentist would drive away.

I think we all like to feel that we have rights over our own property. I told my mom, Doris Lindsay Parker this story when I came home from the family reunion. He hadn't heard the story, but added that she remembers going to the dentist and having him work on her teeth. She also remembers that the dentist had a son the same age as her and the dentist would say they made a good match. My mom just wrinkled up her face.