Cut above the rest....

So I wanted to post earlier but it took a while to recover from the crazy Friday WiMi and I had...

It started with a trip to the barbershop. Now anyone who knows me well, know that I had long ago moved away from the typical barbershop to a high-end salon downtown at Carew Tower. Hey I was single and I worked so if my one frivolity was a bi-weekly trip to the salon ...hey.  But of course this all changed when the boys were born ... time and finances just didn't permit.  I did take the boys to the salon for their first haircut but realized $60 a visit wasn't going to cut it... no pun intended.  

Mikey(11mnts.) experiencing  the "pampered " life getting his 1st salon cut.

So now I've regressed back to the neighborhood barbershop.  I've done this for a couple reasons...  One being that it's economically expedient ($10 for kids)  and also...  I don't want my boys to just experience the "pampered" life.  I got salon haircuts because I worked and earned my way up to that.  My parents didn't pay for salon haircuts...   I guess you can say I want my boys to "keep it real"   Don't want them going to school telling all the kids they get salon cuts.  lol

"Cuts Plus" is in a sketchy part of East Walnut Hills, but in broad daylight I feel it's safe enough to take the boys and we've been going there for the past 7 months or so.  I think it's a good experience for the boys as they'll come to learn the whole world isn't  mini-vans...manicured lawns and cul-de-sacs...   and I'm there to protect them.  Wimi and I have become quite popular at Cuts Plus...    When I'm with my boys I'm typically not one to walk with my chest out(tongue in cheek) but if there's one place I don't mind strutting around like a peacock it's the barbershop.   Wimi and I walk in and one of the barbers will yell out ..."There he is....  brotha man doin the damn thing... times TWO"(don't think I've ever been called "brotha man"  or one will say... "Oh snap here come Wm....  get ready for your workout"  referring to how much of a fight William puts up.   But I absorb the looks of awe, fascination and maybe even admiration I get as we make our way to the waiting chairs.  Yep... these are MY boys...    I wonder if my dad got that feeling when he took my and my brother to the barbershop.

One thing some of you may already know is that the typical black barber is the quintessential know-it-all.  He can tell you... why O.J.is innocent,  why black people love Bill Clinton, and why white people hate Barack Obama.  The eternal skeptic, pessimist,  conspiratorialist, and philosopher all wrapped in one. Yet he couldn't manage to fill out a FAFSA form.  Two things I will have to remember to tell my boys is that everything you ever hear in a barbershop believe the opposite and if you don't , you'll end up on the back side of that chair someday.

"Daddy why.... whyyyyy"(Wm-11 mnts.)

Another interesting thing that happens at the barbershop is that someone is bound to come in at some point and try to sell you something you don't need or want.  This happens so often that I've become so desensitized to it and usually ignore it.  But this day.... this guy came in while we were waiting with a duffle bag large enough to be carrying Jimmy Hoffa.  "Anyone need  some movies... I got Wall Street 2 on DVD/Blue-Ray... gold chains... incense, tube-socks,  I-pads, I-phones....   At this point I'm still ignoring him and trying to give Wimi a snack.. "...I got that Lady Ga-ga mix-tape...  scented oils, white t-shirts and infant skull-caps"   I look up suddenly from opening a juice box for Michael...   "Did you say infant skull caps?"    How random is that?  Who walks around selling infant skull caps?   So he digs around his Armageddon duffle bag and pulls out a rainbow assortment of ..Yep ... infant skull caps.  Of course he doesn't have two of any color.   I pause because I wanted to get them two gray ones and he only had light gray and dark gray....    "I tell you what...  they usually go for $2.50 but I'll give you 2 for $4"    I'm a sucker for a bargain so the boys now have mis-match infant skull caps...   which really doesn't bother me anyway.  "Say... you don't have Secratariat in there do you?"   I'm kidding... I'm kidding...  I gave up buying pirated movies after the boys were born...wanting to set a good example.  lol

So that was our Friday adventure...  one of those father/son moments or activities I've come to enjoy and treasure.  I know they'll be many more barber shop trips but for some reason this one will stand out to me. Quite interesting....  hair-cuts, skull-caps, and oh yeah... the barber did get his "workout" from William.  :) 

Thanks for listening
Father Ed