Old hoss smell
My first haircut was in a feed store. Well let me take that back my first paid haircut. Part of my fathers duties in the army during WWII was to cut the hair for his company of men. He father had done the same thing back in WWI so he figured it was a good fit when they asked for volunteers. He still had the kit when I was a kid. Hand powered clippers a couple of nice scissors a comb and a brush. He gave pretty good crew cuts and fair flat top haircuts.
For some reason when I was about 7 he took me to the feed store and let Mr. Foley have a go at my head. He cut hair as long as the hair lasted. He was not one of those barbers who knew two styles short and shorter, he only knew shorter.
I sat on a bar stool with a white cloth around my neck. I was sitting close enough to the pot bellied coal stove that I could feel the heat on my face. The floor was covered with straw from the hay bales and hair from the other haircuts. I remember the old men talking about how Foley knows how to give a good haircut, “You get your moneys worth from old Foley” they said. He pretty much shaved my head. Which was fine with me I wore a hat anyway, and at 7 I did not care if my head looked good or not. He then slapped some witch hazel on my neck saying I needed some of that old hoss smell. He then told me to go get a grape soda. I did, and then we left.
Now days I don’t have all that much hair to cut. Foley has been dead for 25 years and someone turned his feed store into a plant nursery. The last haircut I got I got at sport cuts, it is a place where they take a women’s hair place and dress it up with some pictures of football players and cut men’s hair at an inflated price. I read a post by Dick I think I will find an old time barbershop. I need me some of that old hoss smell.
I should go in with Chuck and split the price of a haircut between the two of us combined we only have one head of hair.
