Tuesday 6 August 2013

A Fear of Losing My Voice.

When I was a little boy, it was very common for kids to have their tonsils out. I never knew why, since I never knew what tonsils actually did, but it wasn’t unusual to hear a mother ask another mother ‘Has little Tommy had his tonsils out yet?’ (Not that I ever knew any kids called Tommy, since the name was well passé by then, but it conjures the right image.) ‘No, not yet,’ would come the reply, as though the removal of one’s tonsils was simply a matter of time. Rather like puberty, one might suggest, which maybe explains the odd (but not untypical in my case) suspicion I used to harbour.

There was an urban myth, you see (or maybe it was true; I still have my tonsils, for what they’re worth, so I never found out) that when kids had their tonsils removed, they were given free ice cream in the hospital.

‘Ah but,’ I used to think, ‘that’s all very well, but what sort of compensation is it for going through life talking like a girly?’

It seems I was probably wrong, as usual.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, in my day it was very common to have your tonsils taken out. Mine, unfortunately, were removed, and yes, I got free ice cream, which I promptly threw up.
n.

JJ said...

And did you go through life talking like a girly, Nancy? Was I right?

I bet only American kids got the free ice cream, just like only American GIs had chewing gum to offer.

Anonymous said...

No, actually, I was told by an ENT doctor that my voice would have been higher in pitch had I not had the tonsillectomy; there's more room in the pharynx without the tonsils and adenoids so the voice is lower. I do sing alto and can sing tenor parts. And I'm sure my parents ended up paying for the ice cream as we don't have the NHS :)

JJ said...

How interesting. Well, if you're the one saying 'where's the ball, where's the ball, where's the ball?' on the Mr Dog video, I'd say your voice is girly enough.

Congrats on singing alto, though. There's something rather special about alto. I made a post about it when I discovered that singer from Latvia whose name escapes me.

Anonymous said...

No, that's Maddie, I'm the one at the end of the video saying "Good boy!" a few octaves lower. Anyway, a woman of a certain age shouldn't possess a girly voice.

JJ said...

Oops... I stand corrected.

Now I must see whether I can find that video again on my watch history.