Yeah, I was over due.
Took the boy with me, he has been clamoring for a hair cut for days.
Unusual for a kid.
There is a little barber shop in the town I lived in and I have literally been going to that place for twenty years now.
Two sweet ladies owned the place and one of those ladies was a dear, dear friend.
I just flat loved Linda.
Pretty little blond, thin and just a sweet heart.
She used to invite me to parties at her place fifteen miles out of town, she lived right next to the river.
I will never forget watching the salmon digging nests in the gravel and spawning five feet away.
She has been gone five years now.
Liver cancer.
I went and saw her a couple of months before she passed away and there wasn't much left of her then.
I was almost afraid to give her a hug, I thought I would break her.
If she weighed eighty pounds I would have been surprised.
I do miss that lady to this day.
That barber shop is right next to the bar I used to live in and she would come get my drunk ass and drag me over to give me a good going over, the works.
Hair cut, beard trim, eye brows, mustache and a neck trim for twelve bucks.
Her partner Brenda still does that for me and I don't ever remember walking out of there without giving her twenty.
That's because I think the world of her and I only get my hairs cut three times a year.
Both of them.
Something to give you a chuckle regarding barbers,
when I was a kid, maybe six or seven, my Grandfather took me and my little brother to the barber shop.
He was two or three and the barber put a booster seat on the chair, picked him up, sat him down and asked him what kind of hair cut he wanted.
He pointed at my very bald Grandpa and said he wanted one just like him.
One with a hole in the middle.
Thanks fer stopping by.
Update'
Just to let you know, Linda was very active in the community and was adored by hundreds of other people too.
So much so ,that the city put a cast iron bench in the park down town and put a small, solid rock column in the ground with her picture on it as a remembrance.
I have been known to go visit her on occasion and am overdue.
I get my hair cut three or four times a year. So, some of the time I please those who like my hair long, and some of the time I please those who like my hair short.
ReplyDeleteI just tie it back in a pony tail. When that gets too ratty looking, the lovely wife sneaks up behind me and trims the end of it off.
ReplyDeleteI trim the beard myself.
Then there are are those thick wild eyebrow hairs that have to be pulled out with pliers. WTF?
But your post really isn't about grooming so much as it's about missing a dear friend. Losing them sucks a whole lot more than getting older and going bald.
I still go to the same shop. I miss her too.
ReplyDeleteMe and my two hairs.
Carguy
Despite all the crap in this world there are those people who bring joy to our lives. It's the little things that people do for us; the people who go out of their way; and the people who love and care for us despite ourselves that make life worth living. Your barber was and is one of yours.
ReplyDeleteSadly my favorite barber shop has shut down. It was one of the last real barber shops, where ya got not only a haircut, but trimming with a straight razor, followed by a hot towel, then a shoulder massage. For nine bucks! But the fuckin' city ran her out of business with their goddamn taxes and bullshit regulations! A pox on all their houses for killing yet another honest, down to earth, GOOD entrepreneur's establishment. I've since found another hole in the wall little barber shop run by a big Russian woman. Thank God, because I refuse to go to Stupor Cuts, and my hair grows like weeds. The Navy ruined me, can't stand hair on the back of my neck...
ReplyDeleteI buzz my head every two weeks religiously. Don't miss getting my hair cut but we never has a true barber shop.
ReplyDeleteBeen almost 20 years now with my barber. He used to cut just across the street from us.
ReplyDeleteI've followed every move he's made around the area. He's early 80's now, workin 4 days a week.
Restored old cars and motorcycles, was a navy guy in Korean, played in dance bands with his accordian, still fishes rivers and the ocean a few times a year.
Smokes his catches, still. Tells great stories and listens to them, also.
Haircut, scissors, electric razor, straight razor and warm puffy soap to scrape down neck and other areas, always that old school pomade smell in his spray he uses to set the new hair at the end.
Yep, if we caroused together he'd be my best friend. As it is, he's one of the dearest friends, time will do that. $12, n he gets a $20 now, for 20 years, as always.
Great read Busted . . . glad to see that city knew who was important. Class act.