Teeth whitening Gatorade

[444 Magnum]

Before the days of Gleem and Listerine, the Romans used human and animal urine for mouthwash and teeth whitening. The early morning urine was most desirable as it contained higher concentrations of ammonia.

Several years ago, I was framing a house and I had two job corps students working for me. One quiet young man named Dexter was very likeable. It also helped that he was big and quite strong. He could lift one end of a beam and set it all by himself.

Dexter also had a low center of gravity which helped him walk on the 8/12 pitch roof easily. At well over 300#, the roof would "moan" as Dexter walked over it. You could actually see the rafters settling under his weight as he stepped on them (we were still sheathing, roof bracing wasn't set yet). I remember one point where myself and another smaller helper both started to slide down the roof due to sawdust, Dexter reached out with both arms and grabbed both of us and halted our slide! We joked that he had magnets in his boots. He was good to have around.

The job corps students brought their own lunch and I provided water and Gatorade during the day due to summertime heat. To save money, I mixed our Gatorade every night from the powdered mix and washed and reused original Gatorade bottles. We always took a break and I would hand out the bottles to everyone.

One day as we were beginning our break, I told Dexter and the other student with us (I don't remember his name, let's call him "Tim") the story about the Romans using urine to whiten their teeth. Instead of handing out the Gatorade bottles, I told Dexter and Tim to choose their own out of the cooler. "But be careful," I cautioned, "because one bottle will whiten your teeth and the others won't."

Well, you can imagine the looks I got, but the guys were hot and thirsty so "Tim" looked into the cooler and chose a bottle that still had the plastic wrap around it. He picked it up and began to open it. "You chose the newest looking bottle," I observed, "but you'll notice that the seal has been broken." Tim paused with the bottle almost at his lips, unsure now whether to drink or not.

Dexter just smiled, took the bottle from Tim and began to drink. I winked at Tim and then we all laughed.

A brief reprieve from the Georgia heat.

 

[Paul in Nevada]

Reminds me of a similar prank. I was maybe 18 working for this old carpenter named Vic. We were over at his house busting out his back patio with a jackhammer. I was 18 and he must have been in his mid 70's so of course I ran the jackhammer. Now just an aside, if you have ever run a jackhammer all day you know how brutal it can be. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it. A lot of experienced older men in the trades can be very impatient with younger men who don't know what they are doing. I will say that Vic was very patient and taught me the "right way", which has saved me tremendous grief over the years.
After a long hot dusty day Vic sat me down in his shed and gave me an ice cold beer out of his fridge. He said, "If you can work like a man, you can drink like a man." I much appreciated it. Well, I popped the top and started guzzling this sweet nectar while Vic just looked down at the can in his own hand with a sort of smirk on his face. When I paused for breath he says, "You know, you hand a man a beer and he just starts drinking. I have never seen anyone really look at the can before putting their mouth on it. A man could do anything to that can and nobody would be the wiser. Anything at all." He kinda smiled, then set his beer down on the ground between his feet and looked me right in the eye. He wasn't smiling any more. I couldn't help but look down at the can.
"Shoulda seen your face.", he said, then he opened his own beer.