Will it take "All My Children" and the rubber raft re-enactment?

Yup, it's beginning to look a lot like the rubber-raft-in-the-living room year. That was the same year I picked up an addiction to "All My Children."  

It was all my own children that kept me hooked on that soap opera, and it was all my own children who starred in the "rubber-raft-in-the-living-room" episode of real-life drama.

That was about 1983 when all my own children were 5 and 7, respectively.  Well, both of 'em anyway.  Now they're 32 and almost 34, respectively.  That would be Annie and Willie, respectively.  

I remember Annie was 5 because the contents to this story are key to the fact that she was about the right age to lose a lower front tooth----but not quite.

Here's the deal.  It rained and rained and rained that summer. We had no moat around our house.  We had an ocean.  Water, water everywhere and not a drop to think of going somewhere else but North Idaho. 

So, that was the summer of being mainly housebound, all day,  every day.  

When you're housebound with two little kids, you watch a lot of TV, all day,  every day.  

So, that was the year I got into Greg and Jenny's romance and that dipstick Tad, who always seemed to be causing problems for everyone back in those days. 

"All My Children" helped me,  each day,  escape the daily dread of all that rain keeping me in that house with those kids who could not go outside and play, lest they float away over to Gooby's or down to the dog pound or somewhere crazy like that.

So, we all stayed inside.  To keep the kids happy, I brought our little rubber raft into the living room, so they could pretend they were in Noah's Ark sailing away with all the wet and miserable animals.

While they were pretending to do that, I could watch my soaps and Donahue.   "All My Children" was my favorite, and it did turn into an addiction that took a few years to get over.

One day late in the afternoon while I was getting dinner ready in the kitchen, Annie came to me with her hands over her mouth and tears rolling down her cheeks.  

I asked her what happened, and when she pulled her hands away from her face and the blood came streaming out of her mouth, I knew a new reality show had just hit a pivotal moment out there in the living room. 

Through the stream of blood, I could see a bottom tooth missing. Annie gained composure enough momentarily to do what all kids do when someone else did it-----blame Willie.

I went to the living room looking for Willie.  Couldn't find him.  I went to their bedroom and couldn't find him there either----not even in the closet.  I finally found him hovered in a corner on the other side of our bed.  

At that moment, getting mad at either one of them was not an option.  I simply had to find out what happened to that tooth and where it might be.

Well, I found it pretty quickly somewhere near the rubber raft where they had been playing.  They learned from that incident that putting that little nylon rope in between your little teeth and then having your brother pull back on it is not a good idea.

I also didn't think a baby tooth coming out early, root and all was a good idea.  So, I immediately got on the phone to call our dentist.  Turned out it was the end of the work day and our dentist, along with all the others, was on his way home.

I learned after reaching him at home that, in order for the tooth to survive in its original home in Annie's mouth, we would have had to bring the tooth almost immediately to have it stuffed back in its gum cavity.

So, Annie went without a lower tooth for almost a year.  Eventually the second tooth came in with no problems.  

As I think back on this time and look at one more day of nonstop rain, I'm thinking of turning on the tube and getting back to seeing if Greg and Jenny ever got married.  By now---in soap opera standards---they could have great-great grandchildren and 16 marriages apiece.  

Iz "All My Children" still on these days?

As for rubber rafts in the living room, these days I babysit my grandpuppies.  They get a kick out of grabbing on to things and pulling really hard.  

I don't even want to think about that possibility.  Besides, they probably would grab passage on the ark if it passes by here one of these days.  

Ah, rain and crazy memories!