I go to a barber shop that opens at 8 a.m. and somehow that means that when I arrive at 7:50 a.m. I’ll generally find there is already someone in the chair and others quickly follow me in . It’s a place that still remains predominantly an all male hang out and barber shops have given me endless topics to mull over during the past ten years. That’s when I first started noticing a change in their ambiance . That’s when I began to realize that all these retired guys didn’t need an early haircut because of an upcoming busy day , they needed to get back home to begin the day long News Marathons that have become such an important part of daily life.
My freshest haircut turned out a rather unique experience for these present times , it was like a flash back into a different time , back to an era that I can now barely remember . The man that followed me through the barber shop door had been waiting out in the car and another car was pulling in as we both sat down to wait .
” Did you want to go ahead of me Buddy , you were waiting outside first ? ” I offered
“No” he said … ” I’m not here for a haircut , I just came in to bullshit.”
I immediately thought to myself , great, this is where I pick up yet another typical barber shop story from listening to the beliefs that Democrats can control the weather or FEMA wants to rob people of their properties to get at the lithium buried there and such . Thankfully immigrants eating our pets is already old news and likely won’t need to be re hashed, so to speak . On a whim I broke the ice by commenting on the Boston Bruins T shirt worn by the man presently in the chair and he perked right up.
” That’s my home town ” he said and told us about once meeting a Bruins goalie who happens to share my own last name . He described ball games at Fenway Park with glee and I mentioned I’d once met Carl Yastremski and that I went to high school with Baltimore pitcher Mike Flanagan . I followed up with the story of my Father who will only ever watch a ball game that the Red Sox were playing in …. and then sit and root for the other team . The Bullshitter chimed in with his claim of watching the Angels play whenever he liked as he had two cousins who were employed at Angels Stadium in Anaheim and the last guy in the door had a nephew who played in the Little League World Series some years ago.
His haircut finished the Bruins T shirt got up and sat right back down in a waiting chair to continue the conversation as I took his place to begin my haircut . I’ve never really been a sports fan but I definitely became one for at least a half an hour , and it was nice . It was four guys and a barber laughing and enthused just like it used to be some years ago and with less than two weeks from an election not a single comment on political issues was mentioned , not even once .
I do so hope this is a sign of things to come …..
