Paying for my filling at the dentists

​I've had dental check-ups at the same place since I was nine years old.

When I was nine my sister and I were enrolled in The Smile Club. We took our toothbrushes to the dentists and they taught us how to brush our teeth properly.

They gave us pink tablets to chew that showed up the plaque on our teeth, and a mirror to look at them with.

Best of all, they took a photo of us which was pinned to the wall in the waiting room along with the other Smilers. Each time we visited the dentists we'd search for our photo and those of our friends.

Eventually a new dentistry business took over the premises and the photos were taken down.

On my most recent visit, at the age of thirty-seven, I struck up a conversation with the receptionist.  She was lovely on the whole, but she didn't share my nostalgia for The Smile Club, or what a filling cost in 1989.