The James T. Callow Folklore Archive

My father's grandfather was a lumberjack up north in Michigan.
One summer when he was logging he got a horrible toothache.
He didn't know what to do so he asked his boss. There wasn't
a doctor in the camp and the nearest town was twenty or thirty
miles away. He would have had to walk to the town and
therefore lose about a weeks worth of work. His boss told him
that he could get a doctor to the camp in a few days. Two days
later they got my great-grandfather drunk. Then the camps
cook laid him on his back on the ground and stepped on his
shoulders. The cook then bent over and with a pair of pliers
yanked his tooth out. In the morning my great-grandfather's
co-workers explained that in a logging camp the only doctor
was the cook.

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT

Date learned: 00-00-1977