I am old enough to remember when all my haircuts were given to me by my father.
A towel was draped around my shoulders as I sat in my high chair for the haircut. He used a manual pair of clippers, as we did not have electricity available in our part of the county.
I still have the clippers on display in my office. My mother gave my father his haircuts, and my mother had a neighbor that gave her haircuts. No beauty parlors were in existence in our community for the women, but there was a barbershop for men in town.
After I was drafted in the Army, my drill sergeant asked if anyone knew how to cut hair. I became the company "in-house" barber. The military required us to have haircuts very frequently. The sergeant thought the recent price increase by the union barbers at Fort Sill was ridiculously high for draftees making $47 per month. If memory serves me correctly, the sergeant provided the clippers and scissors and said I was to be paid $1.25 per haircut.
I had three sons and gave them haircuts at home until they were in their teens.
These true stories are a weekly column written by Floyd Fenix, a local Texarkana educator and businessman.