Flashback Friday #222

The Really Bad Hair Cut


Greetings. Welcome to another edition of Flashback Friday. Yeah, I realize it's not Friday, again.
Anyway, this post is about the worst haircut that I ever had in my life.

Mom told me that I needed to get my hair cut. By the time my parents got home from work, the barbershop in Marengo was closed. Mom had an idea. If I got off the bus as it was going through Marengo, I could get my hair cut, then hang out in town until they came to pick me up. It sounded like a good idea.

I got off the bus in Marengo (I had to bring a note from home to do so) and walked over to the barber. There were three guys ahead of me. Seeing this was the only barbershop in town, you either waited or went to one of the many "beauty shops". I'll wait, thank you.

Well, I had heard the barber tell one of the customers that he was planning on leaving for vacation as soon as he finished out his day. He seemed excited about where he was going, but I don't remember the local. Once I got into the chair, he walked over and flipped the "OPEN" sign to "CLOSED". I was the only thing standing between him and his trip.

He asked if I parted my hair on the left. If you know me in real life, you know that I have trouble distinguishing left from right because of a teacher that really confused the entire class in kindergarten. So I said :Right". He didn't ask if I meant "correct" or "right side". He just started cutting away, even thought he could plainly see that it was parted on the left (the mirror didn't help matters, it only made it more confusing).

By the time he was done, it looked like he had taken a weed whacker to my hair. I paid him and he just about beat me out the door. All I had to do was to wait for my folks to pick me up.

When Mom got there, she said "My God, What did you do to your hair?" She told me to get in the car and she drove right over to her beautician to see if she could do anything with my hair. After studying it for a few minutes, she began to cut. By the time she was finished, my hair was a lot shorter than I had intended it to be. What was worse, it was only two weeks later that school pictures were taken. In my opinion, it was my absolute worse school picture.

Not Safe To Be A Buckeyes Fan Outside Of Ohio?

Being a big Ohio State Buckeyes fan, this article on Yahoo caught my eye. An elderly couple were pulled over in Tennessee because they had a buckeye leaf sticker (like the ones the Ohio State players wear on their helmets) on their back bumper. The police thought it was a marijuana leaf. They obviously were rusty on the 4th amendment and botany. You can read the full story here. BTW, while we were parking cars at the county fair, I spotted something that looked like a pot plant and called a deputy over. He took one look and assured me that it wasn't one.He said a pot plant has seven leaves, that only has five. It turned out to be mint.

Flashback Friday #221

The #1 Reason That I Disliked Miss Hubbabubba


Greetings to all. Welcome to another Flashback Friday. Surprise, surprise. I actually posted it on a FRIDAY!

Those of you that have read this blog for a while (and are still awake) know of Miss Hubbabubba. I said that there were three things that really set me against her. First, There was an unwarranted detention. Second, she stole my magazine. This last item is what really put me over the edge.

The class I had her for, wasn't choir (of which she was the choir director) but prison, er, study hall. If you have taken the time to read the two linked stories, you can see what a delightful person she was. Not only was she unpleasant, I think it was her calling to make the lives of those around her unpleasant as well.

On her seating chart, we were all listed alphabetically. It would have been nice to be able to sit where you wanted, but that would be pleasant, so not doable. However, My girlfriend, Toni & I had the same last initial. Even better, there was nobody between our names, so we got to sit next to each other. Uh, oh. Pleasant. This must not be.

Somehow, Miss Hubbabubba found out that we were going together. She even came right up to us and said "I heard you were going together. I'll have to find a different seating arrangement." She then moved Toni clear to the other side of the room. She even made sure she wasn't facing my direction. I think she may have been a cobra in a different life because she was totally venomous.

Well, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. That moved her to the very top of my list, with a bullet. If she was ever hit by a bus, I probably would have been the driver. Her actions had further ramifications  later on that proved to be unpleasant ( which she really enjoyed).

Flashback Friday #220

A New 10 Speed


Hello, welcome to another dose of Flashback Friday. If you're young, it's a tonic to let you see that you don't have it as bad as you think.

My last post dealt with me getting my learner's permit. So why would I write about getting a new bike in my next? Even though I was a beginning driver, I was an experienced bike rider. The bike I was currently using was also a ten speed, but it had no brakes. How do you stop a ten speed with no brakes? You drag your foot. The only problem with this is that eventually your "brake shoes" begin to wear out due to the constant friction.

Since I helped both of my parents on the weekends, they decided that to show their gratitude, they would buy me a new bike (I had to wonder if buying a new bike was cheaper than buying new shoes?). We went to Gold Circle in Westerville (where we bought everything) and picked out a bike. My old bike was yellow. MY new bike was blue. The only thing I didn't like about the new bike was the decal on the middle bar. It said "Spectrum" and had polka dots running the color spectrum. I used a utility knife to cut the decal between the words & the dots (I thought the dots looked too "girly").

This bike made many a trip to Toni's house. I would get home from school, get my chores done, then hop on my bike and head to Toni's. That bike practically could find it's way there by itself. Usually Dad would drive over and we would put the bike into the Pinto and head back home. If you laid the back seat down, you could get quite a bit in that car.

Toni & I rode bike quite a bit. He didn't get along too well with her mom. If her mom was home when I got there, we usually went bike riding just to give Toni some time away from her. It also gave us time to smooch, which we couldn't do if her mom was around.

I never rode this bike to school. Since I was going to the high school now, it was a lot farther away than the three miles to my elementary. It's probably closer to ten miles from my house to school. Riding the bus was easier.

Flashback Friday #219

Learners Permit


Greeting to those that still stop by this little corner of the Internet. Yeah, I realize that this isn't Friday, and I haven't posted since the Daniel fast ended, but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of the changes that Blogger made. In my opinion, they made things much more difficult, and in doing so, make it that much easier to put off posting. OK, I'll climb of my soap box and get on with the post.

A few posts back, I told you of my 16th birthday. When I turned 16,it meant that I was now eligible to learn to drive legally. Sir Gattabout still talks of the time I nearly scared him to death the first time I was behind the wheel of a car. He was far away in North Carolina, so Mom & Dad got the pleasure of teaching me to drive. But I'm putting the cart before the horse.

First things first, we had to go to the county seat and pick up a study packet. I had to know all the rules of safe driving. I also had to know all the sins and speed limits in various locations. I read the booklet several times over. Then the big day came to go take the test.

I showed up with about twenty others. We were all given the test and when we were finished, the Highway Patrol trooper in charge graded it before you left. If you missed five or more questions, you failed and had to take the test again. I missed four.

I went downstairs and go my official driver's permit. Dad let me drive home part of the way (about three miles from home). They took me out after they got home from work and on the week ends. We had lots of back roads where we lived, so I got to know them very well. It was awhile before they trusted me on the main highways that surrounded the metropolis of Marengo.