re: Old era barbershop.

I used to get a flat top by John Cantu in the Union in the early 80s. Chicks loved it.

My grandfather was a barber, had a one chair shop in Midland from the 1920s until he died. He died in about 1971-72 so I can barely remember, but he had the place full of old men talking and laughing in French, somebody's hunting dog sitting outside in the back of the truck. He had a little broom closet where he always had an old side-by-side shotgun or two that somebody was trying to sell, for people to look at. He always had a Geesey-Ferguson funeral home calendar on the wall and the place smelled like soap, hair tonic, leather, and smoke. On Saturdays I would spend the day in the shop with him and I was the Chief Hair Sweeper. The old men would give me a quarter or a 50-cent piece. Good times. I have his last shaving mug and brush that was in the shop when he died.

Here in Mississippi it is against barber board regulations to use a straight razor they tell me. They have to use a regular safety razor, it isn't the same.

The last time I had a good straight razor shave was at Lonnie and Oscar's shop in the old Broadmoor shopping Center, but I left BR in 2006, I guess they are long gone.