We have talked several times about our Saturday afternoon movie experiences. But now I'd like to explore another area that was almost exclusively domained by males. The barber shop. At one time my small Kansas community had more than a half dozen barber shops. It had fragances like none other we had ever experienced. This is before the franchised hair salons that everyone goes to now. Now-a-days you have an appointment and go into a shop that has "Ladies Home Journal" or the "Oprah" magazine lying there. And all the aromas of shampoo and conditioners. It used to be at a barber shop they had real man magazines like "Sports Afield", Sporting News" and "Hot Rod" Magazine and the aroma of Rose Water Tonic. You could go in with your father and be one of the guys. My barber shop had comic books to read also. But usually someone had torn out the coupon on the last page and I didn't get to see the ending of the story. You didn't have an appointment - you just went in and waited your turn. Sometimes it was as quick as the next person and if you had to have a haircut because of a wedding or church you would wait as long as an hour. But that was alright because they had plenty of comic books. The only time was of the essence was if you went before one o'clock on Saturday. You had to be at the movie threatre at one o'clock but that was alright it was only a block away. Then your turn came with the barber put the booster seat on the big chair. He would ask "How do you want that today" all the time looking at Dad to get the final answer. Those first haircuts were 35 cents. And, you knew you had gotten a first rate haircut when you could run your hand up the back of your neck and feel bristles. If you felt bristles you knew Mom would be happy when you got home. Then one day the final rite of passage came when it was your turn in the chair and the barber called your name and said "You know, I don't think we need this booster seat anymore." At that point you were truly one of the "men". And, could girls be far behind.
Do you have any childhood memories of the barbershop or other Saturday activities?
Smiley

Kan,
Did you grow up in the same hometown I did? Your foregoing account of your barbershop experience is strikingly similar to my own. My dad's favorite barbershop consisted of 2 barbers, both of them congenial, and very knowledgeable men. One of the barbers was my particular favorite, though I liked them both. Not only did they have the "men's" mags, but they also had comics, and in fact, it was here at my barbershop that I was first introduced to my favorite comics character, the BATMAN. I also found SUPERMAN at my barbershop. And countless others. And yes, whenever I got a haircut on Saturday, I HAD to be finished by 1 p.m. to get to the theatre on time. Especially if the double-feature was a Roy Rogers twosome, not to mention the serials and cartoons. One other thing a bit later would interfere with my love for the Saturday matinees a bit later on. But it was another thing I came to love, and I often found myself torn between going to the movies or attending my little league ball practice and/or scheduled games. I often found myself "skipping" or "missing" little league in order to go to the movies. If a serial was on that I simply HAD TO SEE the next chapter, I'd definitely skip little league. LOL. I wasn't by myself in that category however. More often than not, our little league coaches would find half their teams would be missing when we were supposed to be at the 2 p.m. games or practice. Wintertime little league never affected us, but we played the dickens with deciding whether to go to the movies or little league games when summer came along. Of course, once we were in the theatre, we could yell, scream, and throw popcorn at the poor suckers sitting in the front rows when the serial fights started. What a great life it was!

Dr. Tobor1: So you were the one throwing all that popcorn? I knew I'd find out someday. LOL Smiley

Yep, I only sat on the front rows the very first time I went to the movies with dad and he let me go down there with some buddies; we learned after that 1 time, you just don't sit down front when the action started. LOL.
Later on, as I grew older, we'd buy 2 or 3 bags of popcorn just before the films started, one to eat, and two to throw around. LOL.
I forgot to mention another thing about my barbershop I liked; they had a Coke machine in there for, I believe, 10 cents at the time. One of those old-fashioned 6 oz. bottles of Coke. Another reason why I enjoyed going to the barbershop; I was assured of getting that Coke. The machine, as I remember it, had one of those "slide up" doors. You put your money in it, and you slid the door up to reach in and grab a Coke bottle. Red and white, as usual. LOL.

Fong Git Mo. An icon in the Chinese community in Oakland Ca.. She and her husband opened their barber shop in 1905. She retired sometime in the late 80s when she was well in her 90s, some 20 years after her husband passed away. Their shop and home is still on it's original location, on the corner of 7th & Harrison Sts.
My first haircut there was when I was five years old. The first thing that greeted my mother and myself were the loud sqawkings of two of the largest parrots I had ever seen before. One of them talked up a storm (must have been the female). "Be careful, little one. As much as they like crackers, they like little boy's fingers even more," warned Fong Git Mo, who spoke impeccable English. No 'Pidgin English' for her as one might expect from a Chinese woman in those days.
Fong Git Mo, usually cut the kids hair while her husband handled the adults. When she was through, there was always a lollipop handed out to us. One time they were out of lollipops so they gave out those little wax bottles filled with flavored sugar water instead. Yummy! But the lollipops were the thing. Having those lollipops saved us a penny or two to buy some other candy at the movie. Loved haircut days.
Comic books? Gads. There must have been a ton of them. A collector's dream, and, nightmare, because they are all long gone, probably to the paper drives for the war efforts of the time. And. As K.Smiley and DrTobor1 related, the barber shop was a stop off point to the Sat. Matinees. When there were a lot kids waiting for their haircuts at the barber shop, I always seemed to have one eye on that big clock on the wall. If the time got close to my being late for the matinee, I tried, but always failed to will the minute hand to slow down for me. When I finally did get inside the theatre, it seemed that the same kids from the barber shop were there in front rows. Me? I probably got stuck behind some tall adult who kept his hat on during the whole show. If there was a time where I wanted to be disrespectful to my elders, it was usually at the movies. ("Why don't you take off your hat, and maybe your head, at the same time?")
My friends back in Oakland tell me that nowadays when they and other friends go to dinner at the restaurant that is now located where the barber shop used to be. They always say, "Meet you at Fong Git Mo's." Never using the name of the restaurant.
I bet. Walking the streets of Chinatown now are kids between the ages of 20 and 80 who all had haircuts at Fong Git Mo's. And. Not one of them had a bowl over their heads for that pre-Beatles look.
Actually, my most memorable haircut was not at Fong Git Mo's. But at my uncle's house.
On a Saturday that was hot enough to melt the soles off my shoes, I went to my cousin Cal's house to see if he was going to the matinee, and that I would meet him there after my haircut. But when I walked in the house, my Uncle Ernie was just finishing up with giving Cal a haircut. Somehow, Uncle Ernie knew my Saturday schedule better than I did. "How much do you have?" Huh??? "How much money do you have?" Fifty cents. "Let me give you the haircut. You don't really need to go to the movies do you? You can go to the movies anytime. Give me the fifty cents and we can get ice cream for all of us." Gulp. No movie? A lot of silent squirmming went on by me. "Well, what do you say? It's such a hot day. Wouldn't ice cream be better than a movie?" Unnhh. O.K. He gave the fifty cents I (sweatingly) gave him to one of the boys to get a gallon of ice cream.
While I was getting my haircut, all I could think of was, No movie. No serial! But ll was forgotten when the Neopolitan ice cream was punked down in front me. Boy, my favorite at the time. Boy, it sure tasted good on that hot day. I don't remember the serial I missed. I don't think I really care now. All I remember was there sure a lot of happy faces that day.
My haircut? My mother said, after I got home later tha afternoon, "Fong Git Mo did a really good job of cutting your hair today."

The Corner Barbershop