Brand New Haircut

I got some tragic news before I left town. My neighborhood barber shop closed --- for good. And I didn't have time to find a new place before I left for the weekend.

I'm the kind of guy that likes his barber shop old school. I want an old guy in a white smock to cut my hair, I don't want a chick sitting next to me getting a perm, and I want to read 6-year-old copies of Field & Stream while I wait. They're aren't many barber shops like this left in Dallas. But Hot Springs seems to have plenty. I picked one out of the phone book and walked a brisk 20 blocks from my hotel to Kilbey's Barber Shop on Central Avenue.

Mr. Kilbey, a spry 81-year old man, cut my hair. He wore a white smock and knew how to use a straight razor. He spent a good 40 minutes cutting my hair which has to be some kind of new record. The reason it took so long was because Mr. Kilbey was regailing me with stories about the time he spent in the Navy during WWII while cutting my hair. Mr. Kilbey's job during the war was setting up torpedos which were attached to bomber planes. And he was stationed some place called the Admirality Islands which is off the coast of the Phillipines. He told me what it was like to watch a torpedo bomber explode. And he said at night, he and his buddies never missed the sunsets on the islands. "It was a damn shame. Such pretty sunsets and not a girl in 100 miles to enjoy them with."

This is probably the best hair cut I've ever recieved.