A Bobby Hull Smile

My son has started losing his deciduous teeth. When he smiles, he reveals a giant, gaping void in his mouth. Yesterday I told him he had a Bobby Hull smile. He looked at me blankly and asked who Bobby Hull was. I informed him that Bobby Hull is a former hockey player famous for his explosiveness, speed, puck-handling skills, and legendary, toothless grin. I then found the following image of the great player on the internet. My son got a real kick out of the photo and immediately asked me why I hadn't lost my teeth when I played hockey. To answer his question, I opened my mouth and pointed to the missing premolar on my lower left side, which was the end result of an errant puck to the face during a pick-up game in my early twenties.

​My missing tooth is only visible if I open my mouth, but I told my son that if the puck had me an inch to the right, I too would be the proud owner of a permanent Bobby Hull smile.  

My missing tooth impressed my son even more than Bobby Hull's smile had, and he immediately declared his desire to start playing hockey. I informed him I would consider his request over the summer, but that he could only play if he would wore a cage at all times. The last thing I need is a kid who loses his permanent teeth and ends up looking like one of hockey's legendary toothless Bobbies - like Bobby Clarke, for example.   In Canada and some parts of the United States, men with missing teeth exemplify toughness, but I don't think many people here in Hungary would regard a man's toothless Bobby grin as a sign of ruggedness, but rather as evidence of poor dental hygiene or sheer stupidity.

That's the thing with cultural nuances - they rarely translate well.