OMGosh! They removed his only testicle? Poor guy.
Perhaps I phrased that wrong.
He was born with two testicles but had to have one removed.
He had it removed when he was about five years old, so goes the story.
But first, how I found out about this as I don’t ever recall seeing my father naked.
My real parents, my real mother and my real father, had four kids, three daughters and a son. The first three were the daughters then my brother was born.
My father and mother fought for days.
As it would turn out, as I learned, he only had one testicle and they thought, back in those days, that they could only have children of one sex. When the fourth child was a boy my father went ballistic as my mother sobbed and swore the child was his.
I must suppose at some point in time the truth is he could have children of either sex as after the divorce my father remarried and had another son. After that son was born he had a vasectomy....heh. and he got a DISCOUNT!
I asked around his family and the reason why had to have it removed is stunning. Turns out he had worms and they somehow got into the scrotal sack. They twisted that testicle until he was screaming in pain and he had it removed. Bear in mind, this was in the 1930’s.
So I did some googling and it does turn out that worms were once quite a problem and the loss of testicles because of them was not all that unusual.
This is a man who built three houses, purchased a farm and slaughtered cows, picked up snakes with his bare hands, worked 14 hours a day and he was very smart too, though he only had a third grade education.
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
PS...one of those daughters was give up for adoption and turned up in my life when I was 30. And she’s JEWISH! Another story for another day.