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Speaker 1: Welcome to this country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.

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Speaker 1: From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my experiences and life lessons. This country Life is presented

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you

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Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airwaves have off. All right, friends,

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Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some

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Speaker 1: stories to share. Barbershops and beauty parlor astronauts. One of

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Speaker 1: the many things we all have in common, aside from

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Speaker 1: you naturally depilated folks who have as much use for

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Speaker 1: a comb as I do a dog that won't hunt,

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Speaker 1: is the fact that we all at some point need

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Speaker 1: a haircut. There ain't many of those old school barbershops

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Speaker 1: around anymore, or is there. We're talking about barbershops today,

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Speaker 1: But first, I'm going to tell you a story. My

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Speaker 1: brother Tim had been hired by the Arkansas State Police

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Speaker 1: at the tender age of nineteen. It would spend his

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Speaker 1: entire career at the Troop F headquarters in our hometown

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Speaker 1: of Warren, Arkansas. He went to work in the communications

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Speaker 1: division running the radio, eventually becoming the communications supervisor for

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Speaker 1: that troop and retiring after twenty nine years and four

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Speaker 1: months of dedicated service to our community in the state

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Speaker 1: of Arkansas. The Badge and the pistol totals are quick

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Speaker 1: to be recognized for the jobs that we did, but

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Speaker 1: I tell you this in no uncertain terms. A good

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Speaker 1: radio operator is worth their weight in gold, and my

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Speaker 1: brother's reputation in South Arkansas was that he was the best.

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Speaker 1: Just ask anyone who worked with him or for him.

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Speaker 1: But before he built that reputation, he had to get

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Speaker 1: a haircut and report in uniform to the headquarters. For

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Speaker 1: his first shift, he went to Cohler's barber shop, located

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Speaker 1: on the north end of Main Street, one of the

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Speaker 1: two main shops our family would patronize during my childhood

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Speaker 1: and until I moved away. Mister Oscar Coler was a veteran,

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Speaker 1: and I remember the American Legion magazines that were scattered

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Speaker 1: around the shop, along with the daily newspaper that was

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Speaker 1: folded neatly waiting for someone to read while they waited

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Speaker 1: for his chair to open. Tien was no stranger to

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Speaker 1: mister Oscar. He and a couple others had been cutting

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Speaker 1: all of our hair on and off all our lives,

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Speaker 1: including our grandfathers and our dad's. There it wasn't like

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Speaker 1: there was a lot of choices for haircuts, but it

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Speaker 1: didn't have to be. A haircut was a haircut. Unless

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Speaker 1: you ask for a high and tide or a flattop,

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Speaker 1: you were getting what we called the white walls. Like

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Speaker 1: I said of vintage tires that had a big white

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Speaker 1: stripe that covered the majority of the sidewalls. The side

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Speaker 1: of your head around your ears would be shining just

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Speaker 1: as bright after mister Oscar ran the cold steel of

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Speaker 1: his clippers around your ears, exposing your scalp that the

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Speaker 1: sun hadn't seen in weeks or in Tim's case, a

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Speaker 1: couple of months. This was the late seventies and hairstyles

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Speaker 1: were pretty much whatever you could grow. Tim wasn't stylished

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Speaker 1: by any stretch of the imagination. His style just happened

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Speaker 1: to be in vogue at the time. He told me

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Speaker 1: he'd never owned a comb and just wore a hat

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Speaker 1: that would get his haircut when it got to bothering

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Speaker 1: his ears. None of those facts were lost on me.

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Speaker 1: My brother had ninety nine problems keeping his haircut from fashion.

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Speaker 1: That wasn't one of them. But now with this new job.

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Speaker 1: He'd crossed the threshold the Colders barbershop twice a month

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Speaker 1: to keep his hair at the ear ratio and check.

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Speaker 1: He sat down in the chair and mister Oscar went

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Speaker 1: to work while Tim excitedly told him about his new

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Speaker 1: job he was starting, now proud he was to be

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Speaker 1: working there. All the while, hot leathern towels, a straight

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Speaker 1: razor was dropped. Eventually, clippers, scissors, tonic and a comb

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Speaker 1: was applied to what once was a briar patch of hair,

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Speaker 1: a Southern Farmer's Association co op hat had been hiding

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Speaker 1: from the puppet. Tim said. He eased him around in

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Speaker 1: that chairy to look at his hair in the big

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Speaker 1: mirror and said how's that? Tim now not really asking

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Speaker 1: for approval, but more or less waiting for him to

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Speaker 1: say thanks and hand him three dollars, letting him keep

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Speaker 1: the change. Tim said, I looked in the mirror and said,

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Speaker 1: mister Oscar, I parted my hair on the other side.

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Speaker 1: He said, no, you don't. Tim said, as nice as

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Speaker 1: I could say it, I said, yes, sir, I parted

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Speaker 1: on the other side. Tim said. Mister Oscar got a

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Speaker 1: little tasty and spun him around in that chair and said, boy,

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Speaker 1: I've been cutting your hair since she was five years old.

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Speaker 1: I know which side you parted on. Tim said it

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Speaker 1: kind of scared him, and he said, oh, oh, yes, sir,

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Speaker 1: that's right. I don't know what I was thinking. He

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Speaker 1: paid him and he bought a comb, the first comb

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Speaker 1: he ever owned, and he left and went home to

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Speaker 1: show Barbajean his wife. And by the time he got there,

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Speaker 1: that tonic water had dried and his natural part had returned,

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Speaker 1: which had freed his combed over hair from its bonds

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Speaker 1: of moisture. He walked into the house to get dressed

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Speaker 1: in his uniform, and he said, as he walked through

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Speaker 1: the kitchen, he met Barbajean, a woman so sweet sugar

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Speaker 1: would melt in her mouth. His biggest fan and supporter.

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Speaker 1: She was coming out of the living room. She took

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Speaker 1: one look at his hair and said, what is dead

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Speaker 1: on your head? Now, it's a good thing that he

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Speaker 1: bought a comb. He came in real handy that day.

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Speaker 1: And according to my brother Tim, that's just how that happened,

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Speaker 1: and what happened and would continue to happen every time

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Speaker 1: he went in Kohli's barbershop. The barbershops of my youth

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Speaker 1: were a time honor tradition of two types of haircuts,

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Speaker 1: short and shorter. They were places of refuge for the menfolk,

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Speaker 1: some of who always seemed to be there waiting every

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Speaker 1: time I went in there. You go ahead, son, we're

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Speaker 1: just visiting. Then they'd go back to their self appointed

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Speaker 1: mission of solving all the world's problems. I heard them

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Speaker 1: talking and arguing about everything from livestock futures and foreign

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Speaker 1: policy to telling war stories and where the fish were biting.

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Speaker 1: A young man could get quite an education in the

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Speaker 1: bar barbershop if he paid attention, according to my grandpa,

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Speaker 1: and if he wasn't careful according to my grandma. The

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Speaker 1: barbershop was traditionally a male only environment that was more

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Speaker 1: of an unspoken courtesy to the men who frequented the

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Speaker 1: business by their female counterparts. Also, I don't know any

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Speaker 1: ladies that would want to go in a barbershop they

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Speaker 1: flipped the coin over, and the same accounted for the

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Speaker 1: beauty parlor. Women only, no men allowed. Growing up, I

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Speaker 1: wish that had applied to little boys as well, because

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Speaker 1: every time the fates hung me up with my grandma

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Speaker 1: Mama's sly and she was going to her standing weekly

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Speaker 1: appointment at Bonnie's beauty parlor. I knew I was there

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Speaker 1: for a wasted afternoon. I was sitting there, surrounded by

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Speaker 1: a mountain of Southern Living and Good Housekeeping magazines, choking

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Speaker 1: on hairspray, and listening to the blue haired ladies talk.

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Speaker 1: I wish I was anywhere but right there. I remember

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Speaker 1: one time I got up in one of the chairs

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Speaker 1: that had a big hair drying bubble on the back,

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Speaker 1: and the ladies would pull it down on their heads

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Speaker 1: and dry their hair. Now, to me, it looked like

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Speaker 1: an astronaut helmet, and that's what I would pretend it was.

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Speaker 1: I got on my knees in one of them chairs

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Speaker 1: and I pulled it down as low as I could

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Speaker 1: get it down over my eyes, and looking through that

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Speaker 1: clear plastic shell at the distorted figures and faces of

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Speaker 1: the women in a beauty shop. What a strange planet

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Speaker 1: I've landed on. These cackling monstros that live here are loud,

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Speaker 1: and this is no place to be. I must refuel

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Speaker 1: my ship and leave here post haste. I flipped around

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Speaker 1: in the seat and saw a button and two knobs,

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Speaker 1: and I turned to what I imagine was the proper corners

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Speaker 1: for Earth, and I mashed the button and I was

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Speaker 1: pretending to be the blast off switch. Turned out that's

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Speaker 1: exactly what it was. An immediate and sustained blast of

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Speaker 1: volcanic air smoked my eyebrows like a camel cigarette, and

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Speaker 1: now I assumed I knew what a burnt match felt like.

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Speaker 1: I also received my first experience of getting snatched out

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Speaker 1: of the frame when Mama Slide grabbed a hold of

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Speaker 1: my arm and pulled me from my imaginary spaceship and

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Speaker 1: out from under the furnace of a dryer that was

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Speaker 1: blowing more hot air than an August wind in West Texas.

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Speaker 1: It scared the soup out of me and embarrassed me

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Speaker 1: in front of all those old ladies who were trying

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Speaker 1: night to laugh and doing a very poor job of it.

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Speaker 1: I might add, my balls were so dry from the

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Speaker 1: back draft. I just endured it as I blinked repeatedly

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Speaker 1: to remorsing him. It sounded like somebody was playing a

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Speaker 1: snare drum. Well, it felt like that anyway. Unfortunately, that

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Speaker 1: little mishap didn't bar me from Bonnie's Beauty Parlor, located

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Speaker 1: adjacent to the courtyard at the Coker Hotel on West

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Speaker 1: Cedar Street. I still had to go in with Mama

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Speaker 1: Slide when some poor planning on my part had me

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Speaker 1: in town instead of at home on farm, and every

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Speaker 1: time I was there, time stood still. For the love

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Speaker 1: of humanity, that kind of stuff didn't happen in the barbershop,

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Speaker 1: and both places were sanctuaries to each set of patrons,

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Speaker 1: and never the Twain should meet. In rural Southeast Arkansas,

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Speaker 1: where I grew up, the Twain never would meet, at

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Speaker 1: least not during that era of my life. The barbershop,

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Speaker 1: just like the beauty parlor, was a gathering spot for

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Speaker 1: each specific clientele. It was Facebook before Facebook, and where

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Speaker 1: you got all the news that wouldn't fit to print.

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Speaker 1: Our local newspaper only came out once a week, every Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: but the barbershops and the beauty parlors they ran all

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Speaker 1: week long. I couldn't testify what was ever said in

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Speaker 1: the beauty parlor when I was there with Mama's lie,

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Speaker 1: outside of answering a million questions about how much I'd

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Speaker 1: grown since the last time they had me captured in

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Speaker 1: that never ending hen party at the barbershop up that

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Speaker 1: was a whole of the matter. That place had my

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Speaker 1: attention from the moment I walked in the door. I

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Speaker 1: wasn't much on getting my haircut, but the magazines were

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Speaker 1: way better American Legion, VFW, Outdoor Life, Field and Stream,

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Speaker 1: and National Geographic with the occasional scantily clad Native. There

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Speaker 1: was taxidermy on the walls, and cigarettes, smoke and chewing tobacca,

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Speaker 1: and war stories. The old men that hung out in

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Speaker 1: there were mostly veterans of World War Two in Korea

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Speaker 1: who talked openly about their times in the service. The

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Speaker 1: veterans from Vietnam, they usually didn't. My dad served but

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Speaker 1: missed both Korea and Vietnam. One he was too young

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Speaker 1: for and the other didn't kick off until after he'd

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Speaker 1: served his hitch. I was enamored with the military and

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Speaker 1: talking to the old men who'd been to far away

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Speaker 1: places in Europe and the South Pacific. The stories that

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Speaker 1: they told one another, that I was just a fly

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Speaker 1: on the wall for played in my head like a

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Speaker 1: black and white war movie of the nineteen forties that

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Speaker 1: I just couldn't get enough of. Some of the stories

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Speaker 1: they told make me look back now, and I realized

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Speaker 1: that they were talking about things that they could only

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Speaker 1: tell other men who'd witnessed the same and would understand

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Speaker 1: it was therapy for him, and I was privileged to

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Speaker 1: some of those sessions. I never asked questions while I

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Speaker 1: was there, but I would talk to my Grandpa when

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Speaker 1: we left about what and where they were talking about.

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Speaker 1: Now surpassing conversations about the service was hunting and fishing stories,

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Speaker 1: and depending on what time of year it was and

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Speaker 1: who was in the shop, dictated what the game was

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Speaker 1: most discussed. Squirrel dogs, coon dogs, hog dogs, dug dogs,

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Speaker 1: deer rabbit, and cayles. They were traded for, bought, and

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Speaker 1: sold in the barber shop. It was a happening place,

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Speaker 1: and the smell of manliness in Aquavelva drifted out into

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Speaker 1: the street in the summer when the door was opened

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Speaker 1: and the fans were running. I didn't have a favorite

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Speaker 1: barber at the time. I liked them all, and the

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Speaker 1: barbershop I went to most was right in the middle

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Speaker 1: of all the stores on main Street. Mister hars Ashcraft,

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Speaker 1: mister Ray Roberts, and mister Foster Smith cut hair in

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Speaker 1: there for what seemed like a hundred years. Mister Foster

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Speaker 1: was the younger of the three, and when he wasn't

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Speaker 1: cutting hair, he worked for the State Highway Department, running

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Speaker 1: a ferry that took cars across the Washingtaw River from

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Speaker 1: the south end of Bradley County at moorro Bay before

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Speaker 1: they built the bridge. Mister Ray cutting my hair more

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Speaker 1: than anyone. He was such a kind and gentleman. But

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Speaker 1: you didn't tell him how you wanted your haircut. You

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Speaker 1: just sat down and he went to work. When he

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Speaker 1: could see the appropriate mound of fresh skin knocking above

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Speaker 1: your ears, he'd cut you loose with a smile and

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Speaker 1: a piece of candy. Mister Harris and mister Ray retired

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Speaker 1: and mister Foster Smith took over the duties of keeping

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Speaker 1: my head bush hogged. Mister Foster was a big man.

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Speaker 1: His hands looked as big as catchersmiths to me, but

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Speaker 1: he was quiet. He didn't say much, but he was

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Speaker 1: a crappy fish and Jedi. He talked very deliberately and low,

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Speaker 1: with a gentlemanly Southern drawl. I played football with his

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Speaker 1: youngest son, who was a year older than me as

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Speaker 1: an adult, and anytime I walked in to get a haircut,

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Speaker 1: he'd be reading the newspaper usually and sitting in the

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Speaker 1: big chair that he was fixing to put me in.

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Speaker 1: Sit down here, boy, which started out the conversation, and

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Speaker 1: about a quarter of the way through the cut he

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Speaker 1: talk again and say, well, Brent, you've been catching any fish?

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Speaker 1: And then he'd ask about my dad. He was the

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Speaker 1: only one left of the three who had cut my

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Speaker 1: hair there during my childhood and up until I moved away.

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Speaker 1: I saw a picture on Facebook from a page dedicated

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Speaker 1: to the town where I grew up that was posted

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Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. Someone had taken the picture of the

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Speaker 1: interior through the big window that face to main Street,

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Speaker 1: and aside from the ceiling having fallen into disrepair and

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Speaker 1: dust on the floor, it looked exactly the same. Stared

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Speaker 1: at it, I could smell that picture. I could have

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Speaker 1: never imagined that the scin of hair tonic and after

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Speaker 1: shave that followed me out the door nearly thirty years

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Speaker 1: ago would still stir fresh today just from looking at

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Speaker 1: an old photo. But it did. I wouldn't see another

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Speaker 1: real barbershop for quite a while until relocating and fighting

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Speaker 1: crime in the Elder Rada, Arkansas. Elvan's Barbershop was a

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Speaker 1: place a lot of us got a haircut. Mister Elvin

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Speaker 1: Ramsey was a master of the hot leather straight razor

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Speaker 1: neck shave in a sixty second high and tight. The

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Speaker 1: refreshing and memorable scent of shaving lotion hanging in the

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Speaker 1: air welcomed you into a barber shop, just like it

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Speaker 1: did on the other end of town at the Southern

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Speaker 1: Gentleman Barbershop, an aptly named concern, where my friend and

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Speaker 1: colleague Mark Thomas father has owned a shop for the

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Speaker 1: past sixty years. Just like the name implies, mister Benny

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Speaker 1: Thomas is the epitome of a Southern gentleman and still

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Speaker 1: cutting hair in his eighties, and according to Mark, he

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Speaker 1: maintains the oldest continuously operated original owner business license in town,

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Speaker 1: an incredible feat all in its own in a disappearing

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Speaker 1: art form. Now, there's plenty of clip joints around, but

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Speaker 1: a true barbershop was becoming something of an oddity. My

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Speaker 1: career eventually brought me to central Arkansas, and the true

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Speaker 1: barbershops like I had grown up with were few, and

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Speaker 1: the ones I could find were packed daily with customers.

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Speaker 1: You couldn't just pop in and get a haircut. Without

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Speaker 1: waiting forever, and there was no talking amongst the patrons.

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Speaker 1: Number one, I didn't know anyone in there. And number two,

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Speaker 1: everyone that was in there was staring at their phones

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Speaker 1: instead of noticing what was going around them, and that's

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Speaker 1: me included. Thirdly, there were never the same barbers in

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Speaker 1: there two times in a row. I quit fighting and

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Speaker 1: just went to a chain business for several years. The

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Speaker 1: old time places were gone as far as I was concerned.

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Speaker 1: Then a couple of years ago, I found Blue Water

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Speaker 1: Barber and Supply in Little Rock. My friend Duck hunting

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Speaker 1: buddy and Old Whaling's veterinarian doctor Jonathan Bradshaw told me

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Speaker 1: about it and I tried it out one day. My

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Speaker 1: main man, Dylan, has been cutting my hair ever since,

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Speaker 1: and it's been quite a refreshing charge of nostalgia going

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Speaker 1: in a real barbershop again. I've gotten to know the

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Speaker 1: guys pretty well. Cody and Sean are all younger than me,

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Speaker 1: and I make fun of most of the music they played,

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Speaker 1: but it's one hundred percent a barbershop. I talked to

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Speaker 1: them into coming to Northwest Arkansas a year before last.

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Speaker 1: They were cutting hair at the World Championship squirrel cookoff

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Speaker 1: on the sidewalk, complete over with a big barbergeair. Now,

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Speaker 1: every time I go in, a scented hot towel wrapped

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Speaker 1: around my head takes me back to Main Street in Warren, Arkansas,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven. And for a minute, while I'm

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Speaker 1: sitting there with my eyes closed, relaxing to the refreshing

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Speaker 1: scent they put on that towel, I expecting my grandfather

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Speaker 1: to jokingly say, Ray, I'll cut one side of his

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Speaker 1: head and you do the other, or my dad say, Foster,

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Speaker 1: you should just quit and go fishing with us tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: But Dealan removes the towel, and I'm not eleven anymore.

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Speaker 1: Now I don't see my paf all smiling at me, hoping.

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Speaker 1: I thought maybe this time he was actually going to

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Speaker 1: cut one side of my hair. And my dad isn't

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Speaker 1: sitting there talking to someone about a horse or a dog,

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Speaker 1: or trying to convince the barber to quit a job

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Speaker 1: and go hang out with us. When I do see

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Speaker 1: three young men among others that I know, who are

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Speaker 1: single handedly saving an important piece of American culture and art.

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Speaker 1: The last haircut I paid mister Elden for and Eldeda

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Speaker 1: was a little over ten dollars, the ones I first

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Speaker 1: remember Papa and Dad paying for it. Wouldn't even buy

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Speaker 1: you a soadi water. These days, I pay a lot

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Speaker 1: more for a haircut now. But to have that feeling

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Speaker 1: in connection with my childhood and my heroes that are

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Speaker 1: all gone now except in spirit that took me to

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Speaker 1: the barbershop and drugged me to the beauty parlor. Well,

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Speaker 1: to have that feeling and see those little movies playing

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Speaker 1: in my head while I'm there dealing. Ain't charging me

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Speaker 1: near what it's worth. You bore sporting them mullets. For

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Speaker 1: the love of you many to get a haircut and

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Speaker 1: support your local barbershop when you do. Thank y'all so

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Speaker 1: much for listening to Clay and I here on the

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Speaker 1: Bear Greas feed. Share our content when you can and

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Speaker 1: leave a review if you sew incline Until next week.

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Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful. I

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Speaker 1: don