`Oh yeah, make it real high and tight and shave the sides and back.``.and the landing strip too.` `Yeah, been busy setting up the house and the new offce downtown, just haven`t had time to come in for a haircut.` As Tom was prepping this man up to receive his haircut, they had made a bit of small talk, `Well, Mike, haven`t sen you in a while.` As soon as Tom was done with the first man who then paid and was leaving, the second man got right up from his current seating and wasted no time in getting to the chair. I went in and sat down to wait my turn as he was finishing up with one man, and there was one ahead of me waiting his turn too. Tom himself looked to only be in his late 30`s with brown hair cut in a crew cut with a nice fade around the edges. Inside it looked like an old time babershop, wood paneling, some photos, a couple of racks for magazines and brochures of some sort, and the masculine aromas that are usually associated with a barbershop lingered in the air. So out of the car and into the shop I went. All she said was that she`d be back to pick me up around an hour, and that should be enough time for me to get it done, I figured she knew that I could handle such important things as a haircut, I was figuring on getting a regular preppy style to begin with. My mom had given me a twenty, but she didn`t tell me how to get it cut nor how short she wanted it. As we were driving along, I kept brushing my hair that was protruding from the bottom of my hat away from my eyes, and away from my ears, I would definitely make sure that I would have it so that was not happening any more, and in a few short minutes we were in front of Tom`s Barber Shop. About a half hour later I put on my coat and a ski hat, because it was cold and snowing that day, and then my mom and I were off, the first stop would be for me at Tom`s. My mom had gotten me out of bed and told me to get ready if I ws going with her, so I got out of bed, got dressed and went and had a quick breakfast. But my smartas brother who was in the room was making a motion resembling clippers being used while making the sound of `Bzzzzzzzzt!`, I was wondering what the hell that meant, but from what he told me later was that not a lot of guys in school went to Tom`s for a haircut because he is a `butcher` and about the only clientele he got was Armed Force personell and older gents who kept the same haircut since the 50`s and nobody younger than 50 went around with a buzzed head in the 80`s.I told him to knock it off, I was just gonna get a regular haircut, and that was it, but little did I know what to expect of myself as I got up the next morning. I figured that Tom the Barber would be as good as anywhere else in town to get it cut and it was the nearest barber`s to our house, so it would be more convienent to go there than to the other barbers hat were clear across town. On that Friday night I asked my parents if one of them could take me to a barber`s so that I could get my haircut, they seemed shocked that I asked such a request but my mom said that she had errands to run the next day so she could drop me off at the nearest barbershop on the way, which was Tom`s. It was getting in my eyes and beginning to cover my ears, I had noticed it earlier when I kept having to brush the hair out of my eyes during study hall while I was reading a text book, I new that this coming weekend I had to do something about it because it was becoming an annoyance, and with all the time I put into studying, I didn`t bother with haircuts, but now I had to make the time. I had looked in the mirror of the boy`s bathroom at school and saw how long and scraggily my hair had gotten in the past 6 months, I was beginning to look like a member of a heavy metal band, which quite a fw of the kids in my school already looked like. At this time though, it was that I NEEDED one really more than wanting one. I think I hadn`t had a haircut since before the beginning of that school year, my parents were not too big on enforcing haircut rules for either my brother (who was a junior in high school) or for me, they just figured if either my brother or I wanted one we`d just go to the barber ourselves and get our haircuts however we wanted. I couldn`t remember at the time how long it had been since my last haircut, I was currently 13 years old and in the eighth grade at that time, I kept my grades at A`s and went out for baseball every year. I remember it well, it was a Saturday morning in February 1984, and this one event that took place at Tom`s Barber Shop would change my life as I knew it.
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