The Barber

The barber said, ‘I bet I have done probably a million heads in my day….well, let me think, 50 a day for ovah 60 years, cept Sundays and Christmas, Thanksgiving and the fourth of July, a few othah holidays. It was durin the War, you know, World War Two, we just called it the War back in them days caus’ everyone was involved in some ways or tuther in it and everyone knew just what you was talkin about when you said The war. Anyways, it was durin the War that we had to use brass scissors caus’ they needed the stainless steel for The War. Brass scissors and everyone gave up all kinds of stuff back in The War. You even gave up your tin cans. Not just tin cans, women gave up their nylons, their stockins, cause they needed em for parachutes, for the jumpas, the airborne guys, so the ladies had no nylon stockins. Kids would be all ovah town with their wagons gettin stuff, things that be junk today but back durin The War it was gold. We all knew we had to help, we didn’t want no stinkin dictatas takin us ovah and makin us goosestep round town with our hands up in the air and sayin “heil Hitler”. And worse would be the Japs, flyin in here and droppin them bombs on us without any kind of stinkin warnin, just bombs away and look out below. I was just sittin in the parlor when I heard bout them sneakin up on them poor fellas out there at Pearly harbor. We gave them back a good what –for before it was all said and done though. I bet them Jappy fellas were some sorry they took and snuck up on us.'
' Christmas, it was close to Christmas when that whole mess got goin. It didn’t quite seem like it should be Christmas after all that to-do was goin on, but it was and we made the best of it but it weren’t easy. It didn’t seem right to be gettin stuff when we had boys bein shipped out to kill or get killed and we had so many that already had got killed. My momma said we all needed to remember what Christmas was all bouts in the first place so we did it mostly for her and my grandma but it still didn’t seem like Christmas at all. We still had ourselves a great tree, loaded right up with some of the prettiest ornaments, my momma was tryin to put all that bad stuff in the back, away from everythin she loved and wanted to keep ahold of, and we did our best to make it happen like that for her, but it weren’t the same.'
'I bet that for the most part we knew we was gonna win that War cause we knew we hadn’t a choice. If we was to be losein it we might just as well has gotten killed in the first place, it wouldn’t be worth livin like the way they wanted us to be liven under them dictatatas. Our boys were tough, brave, they nevah came back sayin they was evah scared. They might say they had some times where things got to bein a little hairy for em, where maybe they got to thinkin they might not get back in one piece, and some of em didn’t, but they never said they was scared.'
'Sometimes I wonder what them boys that didn’t make it back would have made of themselves. I look at the way I lived, cuttin hair, meetin folks, then havin myself a family and all that goes with that and I wonder how things would have been different if all those boys hadn’t gotten killed and had got to come back and meet a sweetheart and got to have themselves a house load of kids. What would those boys have invented or built? It seems like such a shame, a waste, but they all know’d they was there for a reason, a good reason, the best reason there could be cause they was makin things good for the rest of us so we could do all those things.'
'I never was thinkin how that fight was too tough for them boys. Everybody would slap those boys on the back when they got home, tell em how proud we was of em and how much we appreciated em for doin them things they had to do. Never did anyone ever say that we couldn’t do it. Nope, we knew there was nothin we couldn’t do if we all stood togetha. And everyone did stand togetha, everyone was ready to do their part. Those was probably the hardest times ever for our country but no one said it. I rememba the neighbors boy was wounded real bad, his momma got word of it. That woman never once got mad or angry. She never cried or complained. All she ever did was ask us to do some prayin for her boy. Her boy died but she didn’t get mad, she didn’t get angry, she didn’t blame no one at all cept those what killed her boy. She was mad as hell at em. All she kept sayin was how she wanted to be sure her boy’s life was used for somthin, not wasted. She wanted everyone to be thinkin of her boy in good ways. And we all was.'
'I think that when people is fightin for other people then those people what are bein fought for are humbled. They just get to thinkin about the sacrifices bein made for em and know that no matta how hard they try there ain’t no way to ever thank those doin the fightin. What do you do? Do ya tell em what a great job they is doin? Nope, I think the only way to tell em is to show em. Yup, show em by being a good person, a person what appreciates bein alive and bein free cause of what those boys gave up for em. You ain’t gotta be a great scientist or a president or a famous actor, nope you ain’t gotta be any of those…..but, you do owe them to be the best you can be at whateva you decide to be, cause they gave you the freedom and the rights to be what you wanna be. They swapped their time, their energies, and some their lives so we can breath free air and live free lives. We sure is lucky to have people likes that around us. We sure is lucky.’