Mailbag - November 2023

THROUGH THE TIMES Pictured, standing from left: James, Arthur, Robert (owner), and Christina Arellano and barber Richard Walker with customers at Times Barber Shop.

The barber battle 

Loved the piece on the barber bond [The Barber Bond: More than just a buzz cut by Russell Weil, Oct. 2023]. My father stepped into the barber role when I was five and he wanted to save money. He bought plug-in electric clipper and went to town on my head. 

I quickly learned that, when he mentioned the word haircut, it was time to hide. On one occasion I dragged the family laundry basket into a corner of the dining room and dumped its contents on top of myself, hoping I was covering every inch of me. 

No such luck. I quickly ended up on a kitchen barstool. Bonding is not how I would describe what transpired. 

Six years later the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show. The mop tops performed not once, but three times. All bets were off. The battle began.  

I lost. After all, it was me against Dad. 

I didn’t grow my hair long until I left for college, when I didn’t cut it for six months.

Then the semester ended, and I was looking forward to being with my family for the holidays. To avoid open warfare, I went to the barber shop. At this point my hair brushed my shoulders. 

“I want it cut short,” I told my barber. She cut off an inch. 

“No, I mean really short,” I said. She cut off one more inch. I realized that this could take all day, so I pointed to a guy getting a truly short haircut. “Like his,” I said. She got the message and did a splendid job of making me look clean cut. The holidays were enjoyed by all. And my hair grew back. 

Dennis Fehr

Brought back memories 

Cindy: You are such a gifted (and fun!) writer. I just read your growing up in the ‘60’s/Beatles memories [It’s Too Hot to Write: But here goes anyway by Cindy Gabriel, Sept 2023]; lovely, and what a cute photo. It all felt so familiar to me, except I grew up in the ’50s swooning over Elvis and Little Richard and all of the other Black singers that my Texas raised father totally disagreed with. Thanks for starting my day with a smile and a warm heart.

Sharon Kirby 

Correction: Wrong date

In response to It’s Too Hot to Write [by Cindy Gabriel, Sept 2023]: Hi, friends tell me that my pop culture knowledge that makes me a champion in pop culture trivia, is so vast, that I should teach a college course on Pop Culture 101. So I could not let Cindy Gabriel’s glaring error about the Beatles’ very first appearance on American TV. She said 1965 for their American debut. Wrong! In fact, 1964 (when I was 9 years old) was so important, it was the topic of one of my blogs that went viral. I saw their first movie A Hard Day’s Night in summer 1964 at least 10 times where I, along with many other girls, would scream through the entire thing. 

Arlene Lassin

Editor’s note: Thank you for the close read, Arlene. The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964. We updated this on the online version of the story. 

Connecting community members 

Appreciate the way The Buzz brings community interest stories to the readers and the digital world. The Baseball Collecting story [For the Love of Baseball Cards: From Hank Aaron to Robin Yount by Karen Vine Fuller, Buzzworthy] was a good example of why The Buzz helps build personal links to neighbors. 

John Collier

Editor’s note: John, thanks for your feedback and for sharing your story with The Buzz! This article ran online on our Buzzworthy blog, Sept. 25, 2023. 

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