DO TIMES REALLY CHANGE

There is something special to be said about a Barbershop. I’ve always found it a very comforting and safe place. It’s comparable to a confessional at church, but without the guilt. Every barbershop I’ve been in there all as clean as a hospital. That relaxing feeling I get when I walk in the door and the sweet smell of the Talcum Powder hits your nostrils, it’s like a drug. It would put any man immediately at ease.

The Chair! When one sits in the barber’s chair it’s as if your sitting on a cloud. Those cushioned seats and arm rests. The raised footrest and the nice pillow like headrest to lay back into for that special occasion when you want a shave to go along with your haircut. I am not ashamed to admit that I’ve fallen asleep a few times in that chair over the years.

On this particular day at this particular Barbershop on Highland avenue I knew it was going to be an interesting cut. As I walked in the door and heard the bells hanging on the door jingle I noticed that three of the five chairs were already taken. So it left me with two barbers to choose from. One was Pete, who was bald, he was not a choice. As a young kid when my Dad use to bring me to this very same barbershop he told me “when picking a barber never pick a bald barber” he went on “bald barbers don’t respect your hair because they don’t have any hair of their own to respect”. I’ve always remembered that bit of barbershop wisdom. The other barber to choose from was Thomas, who never talked but loved to hum songs while he cut your hair. He was an older gentleman with a perfect head of hair. Thomas was going to be cutting my hair today.

Some barbershops are really quiet, church quiet, where you can hear the clip of every man’s hair being cut by the scissors. Others, are loud and obnoxious with men expressing and defending their opinions like what they had to say would solve the world’s problems or make their hometown team the winner of the next pennant. Today was going to be the latter. And, I could tell with this group of men in the barber chairs it was going to be a vicious assault on my ears.

As I took my seat in that lovely barbershop chair and got covered with the cape I took a glance down to my right at all the other men getting their haircuts. There was this young hippy looking kid that must of been in his early twenties sitting next to me. He was getting his shoulder length hair a trim. He was in a passionate conversation with the two men sitting to his right.

The hippy said nice and loud “Your President is a liar!”

He was responding to the Days News that the President was making statements that he didn’t do anything wrong and that the newest investigation on him and his inner circle was just political. The President was accused of looking into firing his Attorney General and a Special Prosecutor doing the investigation.

The two men that the hippy was conversing with was Robert and Joseph. Two friends that have known each other since their days at the prestigious Ivy League college in town some thirty years now. That’s one thing about a barbershop, it is one of the few places where money, class, age, or political affiliation does not matter. These barbers will cut any man’s hair and the group of men that come to these establishments would end up talking to someone they wouldn’t normally look at never mind speak to. As we have today with Robert, Joseph, and the hippy.

I sensed that Robert was more angered at the hippy’s statement then Joseph. Joseph just laughed when the hippy called the President a liar, but Robert would not have any of that.

“You kids don’t have a clue about politics, you just want everything handed to you. This President is going to do great things for our country.” Robert said.

“Great things?!” The hippy asked. The hippy went on about how the President was going to ruin this country. He mentioned how the rich are getting richer with all the tax breaks, how black people have no rights and are getting killed in the streets, that he was looking for trouble whenever he spoke about the troubles in Asia, and that this President would probably get impeached before his term was up anyways.

Joseph responded by saying “Listen son you have to stop believing everything you hear from the media. If it was not for this President this country would be going down the drain.”

I wanted to chirp in but I learned a long time ago to never discuss politics with someone who is not like minded on the matter, it’s just a waste of time. Most people don’t want to hear they just want to be heard. I personally don’t believe that our county is in danger, but there are a lot of people who are afraid of our future.

The hippy answered Joseph’s words by saying “I don’t believe everything the media says” and added “Black people don’t have any rights, just take a look around you. Asia is going to be trouble for this country for years, the rich are getting all the tax breaks, the upper class doesn’t care about us working people, and I have a kid on the way, I can only imagine what his or her future is going to look like”.

“Our future is going to be great, have faith in our President” said Joseph.

Robert added “It’s better to have this President then the alternative”.

Thomas started to hum real loud while he was cutting my hair. He was trying to quiet our great debaters I believe. The barbershop was getting a little uncomfortable. These men would be here all day and they wouldn’t change each other’s minds. They were really ruining my barbershop experience today.

After a few minutes of awkward silence between the men and Thomas’ humming, the hippy’s barber broke out the sweet Talcum Powder and brushed off the hippy’s shoulders singling the end to the Hippy’s time in the heavenly chair.

As the hippy rose up out of the chair and pulled out his wallet as he walked to the cash register, you could tell that he wanted to say something to Robert and Joseph. After he paid his bill and reached for the door handle he stopped and turned around.

The hippy said, “You’ll see that that lying Nixon will get impeached, you’ll see”.

Then the hippy walked out the door as the door bells jingled and Thomas hummed.

Padraig Collins