Next…Shave and a haircut, two bits!

This morning while shaving I thought of my dad. How our lifestyles and choices were different but habits sometimes the same. Dad ate fast and even in church wanted things to ‘move along’ don’t drag.

The military shaped my life in so many ways. You eat fast in the military.  In and out of the chow hall, eating is not a time of enjoyment, but a necessity to fuel a ‘fighting machine’, etc.

Same with morning routines. “YOU have ten minutes to SSSD and fall-in. (Sh—, Shower, Shave & Dress), then fall in ranks for a march somewhere. In the mornings it was to the chow hall.

Dad’s life as a minister had a lot of late night things happen, church services, meetings etc. So basically Ministers are ‘night people’, but the congregation is mostly day people, therefore dad & mom’s ‘farm raising’ (up with the chickens) came in handy. WE were up early.

I started this whole thing thinking about daddy shaving. He was always clean shaven. Gotta be presentable. He was ‘regular’ with the haircuts.

About once a year he pampered himself. The last place was Ballard’s Barber shop in E. Belmont. Dad would get ‘the works’ a shave and a haircut. Mr. Ballard would put the steamed towels over his face, and go to work on someone else's hair. Then back to change the towels, about three times then he would ‘STROP the Strait Razor’, and shave dad’s face slick, Apply the after shave to the face and powder to the neck where he had shaved. That is the one big pleasure I remember dad really slowed down and enjoyed.

Dad could have been like the Seaman aboard our ship. There was a story about the visiting politician getting his hair cut aboard our ship, with a seaman in the chair beside him. The barber asked the politician if he wanted after shave, “No son, the wife will think I smell like a whore house.”

Another barber asked the seaman (who was listening to the conversation) about the after shave, he said, “Yeah go ahead, my wife doesn’t know what a whore house smells like!”

As far as I remember, no one has ever shaved me. I do not have the patience to wait on someone else to do it. Hair cuts? When I went to the barber all I wanted him to do was cut the hair and ‘get me out’.

That also comes from the military. On the Ship we had a couple barber shops. An appointment was 5 minutes, 2 minutes for preps (in and out of the seat, etc) and 3 minutes for the hair cut.

Women seem to love the Beauty shop. Sherry is always in a great mood when she leaves. (well once or twice in her life she wasn’t thrilled, I think that is called a bad hair day!)

BUT when Sherry is happy, I am happy!

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS: Sign of note………..

At a Towing company:

"We don't charge an arm and a leg. We want tows."

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1929 Packard tow truck!!!