My grandson has started rowing in New Norfolk, a country town in southern Tasmania on the Derwent River. While he rows, I sip coffee. In a café owned and run by David Basser.
A: David it is nice to see you.
D: Lovely to see you Alan.
A: Can we go back. We were both at Melbourne Uni together.
D: 1975 we started.
A: What do you remember of that time? What do you remember that lasts?
D: I remember going to Uni. Uhm. I liked the environment, with the class mates.
A: So, did I.
D: That gave us a real university type experience.
A: What I remember of you is you were tall. You are still tall.
D: We are both shrinking.
A: And your dad also worked there. And he was a good dentist.
A: What was it like going to Uni and seeing dad.
D: I sort of idolized my dad, I guess. And he set a very high standard for me to aspire to. I see it as a benefit and a disadvantage. The benefit is two generations of dental knowledge. With your knowledge you are not starting from the beginning. As I was growing up, my dad’s dental technician came into the house nearly every night, and they used to speak about the jobs in minute detail and I would absorb information.
A: In the past a lot of jobs stayed in families for hundreds of years.
A: In our year a lot of us students inherited dentistry from their dads.
D: I helped my dad from about the age of ten. When he had emergencies. It helped me understand what was possible. In a practical sense. Not an academic sense. Because you are not starting at the beginning. you are refining things. You didn’t have to learn that from scratch. And go through all that doesn’t work because of this or that.
A: Did you feel you had to be better than your dad? Achieve what he hadn’t.
D: No. I didn’t feel like I was competing against him.
A: Did you feel like you were another link in the chain? And your children would follow.
D: No not all.
A: You and your dad leads me to your children.
D: They both have artistic bents. A visual artist and a muso.
A: My daughter, who you just met, I would have been really happy if she had of done dentistry. Followed me. I would have thought that was success. Unfortunately…
A: You are now owning and running a cafe. What of your life as a dentist is present in this café?
D: It causes great angst to the staff. Because you can’t bring hygiene standards of a dentist into a cafe.
A: What else learned from dentistry helps you in the cafe now?
D: Any person to person business is about people. And if you focus on looking after the people everything else follows.
A; You enjoy this café so when you were at Uni should you have studied cafés instead?
D: Not in any way what so ever.
A: Not the right time to own a cafe.
D: No, no, no way.
A: The right time to be dentist.
D: Certainly.
A: Your dad enjoyed dentistry.
D: He did.
A: Why did he do dentistry?
D: His two brothers did medicine. So there was family push. A very poor family. It was a noble way to get out of poverty. There were times when they went to school without shoes…
A: So the stimulus was to study well go to Uni and you would end up with a good job. And you?
D: For me I was indoctrinated from a young age. When you grow up go to Uni. I was channeled.
A: I was also channeled. My father always said. Get good marks and then you can go to Uni. It was the light on the hill. Doesn’t matter what you do go to Uni.
D: So long as it was a profession.
A: Yes, same with me.
D: How did you choose dentistry?
A: Don’t know. Had to pick something. It was difficult to get into. They took me.
A: One of my memories. I was doing dental materials and I saw this white material and I looked at that and thought bloody hell what is that. You can do white fillings. I thought fillings were amalgam.
D: Remember gold foil.
A: That’s right. Fillings were amalgam or gold.
D: Aesthetic dentistry didn’t exist.
D: Very different now.
A: In some ways it is different. In some ways just the same. You still have to help the people you see.
D: I agree.
A: As in this café. You have to give them what they want. A nice cup of coffee.
D: My old man told me. Look after the patients and everything will look after itself.
As I drive home I am amazed how much Me and David have in common. Bonded by our years at Uni.
A: David it is nice to see you.
D: Lovely to see you Alan.
A: Can we go back. We were both at Melbourne Uni together.
D: 1975 we started.
A: What do you remember of that time? What do you remember that lasts?
D: I remember going to Uni. Uhm. I liked the environment, with the class mates.
A: So, did I.
D: That gave us a real university type experience.
A: What I remember of you is you were tall. You are still tall.
D: We are both shrinking.
A: And your dad also worked there. And he was a good dentist.
A: What was it like going to Uni and seeing dad.
D: I sort of idolized my dad, I guess. And he set a very high standard for me to aspire to. I see it as a benefit and a disadvantage. The benefit is two generations of dental knowledge. With your knowledge you are not starting from the beginning. As I was growing up, my dad’s dental technician came into the house nearly every night, and they used to speak about the jobs in minute detail and I would absorb information.
A: In the past a lot of jobs stayed in families for hundreds of years.
A: In our year a lot of us students inherited dentistry from their dads.
D: I helped my dad from about the age of ten. When he had emergencies. It helped me understand what was possible. In a practical sense. Not an academic sense. Because you are not starting at the beginning. you are refining things. You didn’t have to learn that from scratch. And go through all that doesn’t work because of this or that.
A: Did you feel you had to be better than your dad? Achieve what he hadn’t.
D: No. I didn’t feel like I was competing against him.
A: Did you feel like you were another link in the chain? And your children would follow.
D: No not all.
A: You and your dad leads me to your children.
D: They both have artistic bents. A visual artist and a muso.
A: My daughter, who you just met, I would have been really happy if she had of done dentistry. Followed me. I would have thought that was success. Unfortunately…
A: You are now owning and running a cafe. What of your life as a dentist is present in this café?
D: It causes great angst to the staff. Because you can’t bring hygiene standards of a dentist into a cafe.
A: What else learned from dentistry helps you in the cafe now?
D: Any person to person business is about people. And if you focus on looking after the people everything else follows.
A; You enjoy this café so when you were at Uni should you have studied cafés instead?
D: Not in any way what so ever.
A: Not the right time to own a cafe.
D: No, no, no way.
A: The right time to be dentist.
D: Certainly.
A: Your dad enjoyed dentistry.
D: He did.
A: Why did he do dentistry?
D: His two brothers did medicine. So there was family push. A very poor family. It was a noble way to get out of poverty. There were times when they went to school without shoes…
A: So the stimulus was to study well go to Uni and you would end up with a good job. And you?
D: For me I was indoctrinated from a young age. When you grow up go to Uni. I was channeled.
A: I was also channeled. My father always said. Get good marks and then you can go to Uni. It was the light on the hill. Doesn’t matter what you do go to Uni.
D: So long as it was a profession.
A: Yes, same with me.
D: How did you choose dentistry?
A: Don’t know. Had to pick something. It was difficult to get into. They took me.
A: One of my memories. I was doing dental materials and I saw this white material and I looked at that and thought bloody hell what is that. You can do white fillings. I thought fillings were amalgam.
D: Remember gold foil.
A: That’s right. Fillings were amalgam or gold.
D: Aesthetic dentistry didn’t exist.
D: Very different now.
A: In some ways it is different. In some ways just the same. You still have to help the people you see.
D: I agree.
A: As in this café. You have to give them what they want. A nice cup of coffee.
D: My old man told me. Look after the patients and everything will look after itself.
As I drive home I am amazed how much Me and David have in common. Bonded by our years at Uni.
