I wanted to ask

I wanted to ask what was the proper way to be nice to rich 
Protestants who raise racehorses but I couldn’t for fear the priest might 
think I was a fool. I heard the Protestants say the Irish people were 
so charming and their children so adorable you hardly noticed how 
poor they were. I knew that if I ever talked to the rich Protestants 
I'd have to smile and show my destroyed teeth and that would be the 
end of it. The minute I made some money in America I’d have to 
rush to a dentist to have my smile mended. You could see from the 
magazines and the films how the smile opened doors and brought 
girls running and if I didn’t have the smile I might as well go back 
to Limerick and get a job sorting letters in a dark back room at the 
post office where they wouldn’t care if you hadn't a tooth in your 
head. Frank McCourt