Shops and their Barbers

Tony the barber, is a dude who works up the street three blocks, and cuts my hair. Sandy's barbershop is the place he works at, and it used to be a hopping joint. But, Sandy had some disease and died, and Sandy's girlfriend got some other dude to run the place...and as the stories go, he wasn't the best guy to work for.

So two haircuts ago, I went in, and there were like five people waiting, and two barbers working. I waited an hour to get my hair cut! That's a long time to sit and read out-of-date ESPN magazines. By the time I got into the chair, I said to myself, "I'm never fucking coming back here again." Of course, the next time I needed a cut, the place was slow, and Tony was working, and he filled me in on the previous story.

Well, shortly after that, the Thai video store next to the Doughnut Factory (where I get smokes, soda, stickers, change, and various edibles) less than a block away from the Casa Aloha, went under. TWO DAYS LATER, it was a barber shop, staffed with two of the barbers from Sandy's. A week later, It had two more barbers from Sandy's. A schism developed, like a turf war.

The guys at the new place waved to me as I went for re-supply or morning coffee. I started feeling weird. Like, which place was I going to hit up? If I got a haircut from Tony - who still worked at Sandy's - would I have to wear a hat while going to the Doughnut Factory? Would I slip up, forget, and have to face retribution from the barbers who now operated their racket out of my immediate neighborhood? After all barbers have a lot of sharp implements at their disposal, and they know how to use them. It'd be just like the mob, extorting me to get haircuts there, otherwise...

Today I was walking back from the beer store, and saw Tony sitting in an empty Sandy's reading a paper. He was the only one in there. I stuck my head in and said "Hey man, what are your hours now?" He said, "9 to 6." I asked, "What days?" He said, "Every day, I'm the only one here! They all left!" I laughed, "When are you moving to the new place?" And he laughed, "They don't charge me rent here, I'm staying until they shut me down!" We both laughed, and I left.

But before I'd gone ten steps, I'd decided, I'm sticking with Tony. You just can't fuck with that kind of attitude.

Happy Friday