The barber shop.

It reminded my of the 60's, when the barber wrapped his "toilet paper" around your neck to begin the cut. There was a baseball game on the black and white TV. There was a case on the wall with hair tonic (Wildroot maybe, or Vitalis) that had been sitting there for as long as a 9 year old could remember.

It was Saturday, and it was standing room only, filled with schoolboys that had to get go get a haircut. When your flat-top or crew was finished, the barber (mine was Jim Sharp at the Pix Barber Shop) would remove the toilet paper wrap, strop the razor, take a good two-finger pull of of the hot shave cream dispenser, and do your sideburns. The old timers that ordered a shave would get a fresh steamed face towel for a few minutes before the shave. You got to jump down, and Jim would give you a penny to put in his old green bubble gum machine. It was a good one, and would dispense up to maybe seven gumballs on a good day.

Those were the good old days. I saw Mickey Mantle hit a walk off home run once in the World Series while sitting in the chair, and Jim had a haircut style chart on the wall next to his shoe shine chair that was a dead ringer for the one at Floyd's Barber Shop in Mayberry.
 
There's a great old barber shop here in Memphis. $15 for a haircut and a straight razor shave. Not bad. Not sure why they even ask what you want, everyone that hits a chair gets the same thing...short on top and shorter on the sides. I do have to admit that I've taken it one step further. Once a week I run my head over with my own clippers and a #1 guard. More cash for pocket knives!! Great story as usual jacknife
 
jacknife . . . thank you for another great story!

I get my haircuts at the same barber shop where my dad went back in the late 60s. He used to take me along with him until he started cutting his own hair, but I never got my hair cut since he did it to me at home (yes, to me, not for me!). I still remember going there with him, even though I was only 3-4 at the time.

In the mid 1970s, my mom rescued me by taking me with her to her beauty salon where the same lady who cut her hair did mine. When I got to college, my sister-in-law was an instructor at a cosmetology school and wouldn't accept money from me, so I got free haircuts and got to "interact" with all of the girls there learning their trade.

When I went to grad school far from home, I initially went to places like "Great Clips," but when I got a haircut so bad that it needed to be fixed, I found an old fashioned barber shop in Alameda, CA. When I sat in the chair, the barber asked me if I'd just been to the exact place where I got my "haircut," and it turned out that he'd just fixed several mistakes from the same place (probably from the same inept woman). I patronized that shop until I moved back home to Indiana.

When I returned home, I gravitated back to the old barber shop where my dad used to take me. The two owner/operator barbers were still there, and they remembered me. Over the years I developed my own "tradition" and loyalty. The shop has changed a bit, though. They now have a set of saloon-style swining doors in the back of the barber shop that leads to another room where some girls do "salon" type hair cutting and other stuff. I go back there to visit occasionally, but my loyalty to the guys in front keeps me in the barber shop proper until my hair is cut!

We're lucky to have several old-school barber shops in my little community of 17,000 people. The problem is, none of the guys running them are getting any younger and most are rapidly approaching retirement. There is essentially no one to replace them, because even if someone wanted to become a barber here, we don't really have anywhere they can learn the trade other than cosmetology schools, and that is definitely not the same thing. The only barber colleges left in the state (to my knowledge) are in Indianapolis and are specialized ethnically, and I suspect it's probably not a welcoming environment for someone from outside of their culture. I doubt if they reject people based on race/ethnicity, but I don't think it's a situation that encourages youngsters from small towns like mine to want to go there and learn how to be a barber.

Anyway, I always enjoy my trip to the barber shop. Some days I'm tempted to just go there and hang out, but since I've only been going there since 1991 (on my own), I think I'm still too much of a newbie to do that ;). I do get into trouble sometimes, though. One of the barbers is one of the few democrats in town, and even though he's more conservative than a demo from Boston, we still have a difference of opinion when I get started on one of my libertarian-style rants. A few years ago I was barred from talking (in a good natured, joking way) as "punishment" for my socio-political outbursts.
 
I gave up the barber shop and started cutting it myself about 10 years ago---too many old farts and I don't have all day----lolololololol----sorry guys that's just the way it is with a 10 hour a day job and 3 daughters---there's never enough time.
 
I'm lucky to have a choice of "old guy" barber shops within a few miles of my house. Nobody offers the "hot towel and straight razor" treatment, but then, I've worn a full beard for 30 years, so it probably wouldn't do me much good if they did...

Always did want to try one of those salons with lingerie-clad female hairdressers as I've heard advertised in some of the bigger cities, but I was never in the right place at the right time. ;)

-- Sam
 
kamagong said:
Where is this shop if you don't mind my asking?
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It was downtown, on one of the cross streets of Park and Broadway. Maybe Lincoln? I haven't been there since 1991, so I can't remember the names of the streets very well. It may not even be there anymore.

The owner's name was Dick something, and it may have been called Dick's Barber shop or something like that. I quit going there a few months before I moved home because he (Dick) was insulting me and some other guys from my gym when we were not there, but some of our friends were.

My gym was Iron Island, on Encinal near the Jack-in-the-Box at the corner of Encinal and Park I think. I know for sure that it's not there anymore, which is sad because it was an Alameda, east bay, and California highlight. It was a pit, but the best place in the bay area to get strong.

Do you live in Alameda? I hear that it has changed considerably since the Naval Aviation Station closed years ago.
 
kamagong said:
No, but I am in the Bay Area. I just like to know of good barber shops wherever they can be found. I did know this very pretty girl from Alameda though. :D
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There were plenty of those when I lived there! :thumbup:

Was she Filipina?
 
No old school barber shops up here in Scandiland I'm afraid.

But having said that,there are compensations:D My hairdresser is not only brilliant at the job but she's stunning to look at and have near you:thumbup: plus she's friendly and amusing.Pity my hair doesn't grow any faster than once a month:D Too bad she's married, to a policeman:eek:
 
omaha-beenglockin said:
...sorry guys that's just the way it is with a 10 hour a day job and 3 daughters---there's never enough time.
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I'm surprised you have any hair left! :D

You could probably use a getaway to one of those shops just to lie under the hot towel and get a good, barber shop shave. Not to mention just some BS time. I guess you could call it a guys version of a day at the spa!
 
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