Another Virginia wrote a letter to an editor of The Sun when she needed her belief in Santa Claus verified. I didn’t even have to write a letter for The Saturday Evening Post to address the reality of the tooth fairy and her relatives. The article had a reminder of the many children who clapped their belief in fairies to keep Tinker Bell alive. Then it cited a minister of the Church of Scotland in 1691 as saying fairies were real beings, “somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud and best seen in twilight . . . They hang between the nature of God, and the nature of man.”
I am truly knowledgeable about only one kind of fairy – the tooth fairy. With six years of teaching kindergarten and fourteen of second grade, the tooth fairy and I became well acquainted. Teeth lost at school found a hazardous journey to their place under the child’s pillow at night. I had a system. In Plan A, we taped the tooth to an index card so it wouldn’t get lost. Even that did not always work, and I would have a tearful child who had misplaced the card getting ready to go home. (Kindergarteners and second graders seldom have the discipline to put such a treasure in a book bag and leave it untouched until time to go home!)
This brought up Plan B. I wrote a note that went something like this,
“Dear Tooth Fairy,
Hannah (or Henry) lost a tooth at school today on the playground (or at lunch or during reading group). I promise that I saw it. We tried to save it but it got lost. Would you please still leave a nice surprise for Hannah (or Henry)?
Signed: Mrs. Butler, Hannah’s (or Henry’s) teacher.”
I would stress to Hannah (or Henry) the importance of being sure a parent saw the note so they could help them get it in just the right place under their pillow.
The next morning without fail during my regular “notes from home or anything you need to tell me” time, Hannah or Henry would be in line to tell me the exact amount that the tooth fairy had left. In twenty years, the tooth fairy never failed to respond to the note I had written. Now, do you see why I still believe in the Tooth Fairy and her cousins?
Just in case you are curious after watching or reading The Polar Express during the Christmas season, I can also still hear the bell ring.