#hillbilly lore

Moth Mondays with the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera: Punkin Puss "himself"

Though he may be hillbilly through and through, Punkin Puss still faces that perennial enemy in mouse form known as a mouse (Mushmouse by name), and still manages to fail in his endeavours at so catching. This time, though, we find him discussing something we've probably experienced at one time or another--a loose tooth, compounded by the inability to get to a dentist right away:

And you thought trying to take a rather pesky mouse is awful enough ... but what it it happens to be in the face of a bad sleet storm, and you've got only a couple cords of firewood to stay warm and do the cooking, not to mention a weekend's worth of lamp oil--and to top it all off, there's also a bum tooth to deal with?

Which was actually the sort of circumstances I faced a couple years back. And believe you me, having a toothache basically means you don't have much appetite, for mice or otherwise. But try pulling a tooth as feels rather loose and try not to look guilty about it in such mitigating circumstances! Even if it's that enemy of mine, Mushmouse by name, as takes the inititative to tie the old string around the wonky tooth, and pulls on the string to get it loosened.

Which was bound to happen--but not without much pain and discomfort. Not to mention blood dripping from the socket where the tooth had been.

Now back in the Ozarks, where I happen to come from, we have this strong belief in corn likker--which some of us call "white mule" for its potency--as a rather effective medicinal. Not just for trying to drown out the loneliness and isolation that's common among us, but also for serving as an antiseptic for practically amy sort of cut, wound or open sore. And a rather potent one, come to think of it! (So long as you find a clean-looking rag to soak into the white mule, to begin with--not to mention the white mule being rather decent. Strong-smelling such can actually be rather rancid, and it can only make things worse; I know of a few neighbours of mine who tried using rancid white mule as antiseptic, only to wind up rather insane from the effects.)

Which required having to use the old Punkin Puss Smell Test on the stocks of corn likker I had to make sure the white mule I had was clean enough, and decent enough ... and boy oh boy, was I in luck when I found some decent-smelling white mule to deal with the toothache, and the rather awful bleeding I was going through! Not to mention a halfway-decent rag to apply to the socket which formed when the tooth came out, and stop the bleeding as well.

And wouldn't you know it: The white mule actually came in rather handy. Even if I was made to look rather uncomfortable having to bite down on that rag, and to change the rag every few minutes to make sure things didn't deteriorate too rapidly. Making sure to soak it in white mule--not to mention having to stay well away from fire; after all, white mule and fire is not a perfect mix to begin with.

As if the discomfort from a tooth coming out wasn't bad enough, you also had me thinking about what the reaction would be at the Saturday-evening dances down in the holler when folks saw that I was a little tipsy-looking because of using white mule to deal with a loose tooth as came out. Luckily, the weekly dance was cancelled on account of the sleet storm, and that pretty much disrupted things for a few days. Which also translated into time enough for things to heal quickly enough.

As for the reaction of Mushmouse--he couldn't help but resist laughing away when I was biting away on a rag soaked in white mule, and I had to keep quiet so things didn't get too awful. And since they recommend soft food for a couple days after tooth loss, what could be better than mashed taters and leftover red-eye gravy just to help things along?

"--and that's the story from The Moth"