Family celebration at grandfather's by jajko

---

Family celebration at grandfather's.
My name is Michael. I live only with my mother. My father left us when I was little. In 1972 I was 11 years old. Like most boys at that time, I had longer hair that covered my ears, bangs touching the tip of my nose. I used to go with my mother to her hairdresser for a small adjustment of my hair. It was Thursday morning and before I left for school, my mother told me that on Saturday we were going to a family celebration at my grandfather's and I needed a haircut. She then told me that she didn't have time to go with me to her hairdresser's but that she was talking to a neighbor Mr. Marriott and he would take me and his boys to the barber's. Therefore, I should come to them at 4:00 p.m. Mr. Marriott's sons, old Dillon is 14 and younger Hugo was a year older than me. I began to realize that they both had short, unfashionable haircuts, so I said I wouldn't go to the barber with them. At that, the mother got angry and started shouting that if I didn't go with them to get a haircut, she would cut all my hair. I got scared because I believed he would actually do it.
Hugo met me at school and asked me if it was true that I would go with them to the Richardson barber shop. I sadly said yes. During class, I was thinking about how I would tell Richardson the barber to cut a little off my hair, no more than 1/2 inch. I've never been to an old fashioned barbershop before.
As instructed, I arrived at the Marriott's neighbor. In a little while we all went to Richardson's barber shop. After about 20 minutes, we entered a barbershop with one leather chair, where a 60-year-old barber was cutting a man's hair. Opposite were 10 wooden waiting chairs on which 3 elderly men were sitting. Mr. Marriott told me, Dillon and Hugo to sit in the empty chairs. He then told the barber Richardson that he also brought the neighbor Michael today and pointed to me. The barber looked at me through his glasses and smiled.
I looked around the walls of the barber shop, where there were several old, browned photographs of men and boys with short haircuts. The whole time I was preoccupied with watching the pictures. I noticed when a haircut Dillon sat down next to me. I looked at the barber's chair, where Hugo was already sitting and the barber started to cut him. After about 10 minutes, the barber called: Another boy. I got up and with an uncertain step replaced Hugo in the barber's chair. The barber wrapped me in a white sheet and combed my hair.
The barber asked, what are we going to do with the boy's hair? I went to say that I wanted to cut no more than 1/2 inch of hair, but the barber cut me off, saying that I should sit and be quiet when the older people were talking. Marriott's neighbor told the barber to give me a normal kid's haircut. I didn't understand what it meant, but I didn't like it very much.
The barber tilted my head to one side, lifted the hair with a comb and ran the scissors along the comb. About 5-6 inches long hair started falling on the sheet. But I still have enough hair left on my head. I was looking forward to not having short hair like Dillon and Hugo had. The barber changed his scissors. He pushed my head forward, my chin touching the sheet on my chest. I felt the cold metal of the scissors on my neck, which made a sound and the barber went up with them. In no time, the barber tilted my head to the side and trimmed my sideburns. He bent my ear and removed the hair from the temple bone and around the ear. He continued to cut the hair on the side of his head short. He did the same on the other side of the head. I was left with about 2 inches of hair on the top of my head. The barber combed them forward and cut them straight about 3 inches above the eyebrows. He applied white foam to the back of my head and around my ears, which he gradually scraped off.
When the barber freed me from the sheet, I reached my hand to the back of my head, but felt smooth skin. I had more than an inch of white hairless arches above my ears. Marriott's neighbor replaced me in the barber's chair.
I sat down in the empty waiting chair next to Dillon. He noticed my panic and searching for my hair on my head. He smiled and said, You have a haircut just like me and Hugo and showed me the back of his head. There was no hair about 6 inches above the shirt collar and then a gradual transition to hair on top of the head.
My mother liked my new haircut and went to the neighbor's house to pay for my haircut.
The next day at school I experienced many taunts. During the break, Hugo stopped behind me, shook my hand and said: Welcome to the club? I didn't understand in which club. So he told me to look at the calendar at home, what is written there in 4 weeks.
After coming home from school, I ran to look at the calendar. I flipped the calendar over 4 weeks and it said Saturday: Michael to get a haircut at Richardson Barber Shop. I couldn't believe my eyes.
After my mother came home from work, I asked her about it and she said that I would like a new haircut and arranged with Marriott's neighbor to take me and his boys to the Richardson barber shop every 4 weeks.
At the party, my grandfather liked my new hairstyle and he compliments my mother that I finally don't look like a girl. The children at the party had a different opinion about my hairstyle and therefore made fun of me for it.
My hair grew about 1/2 inch in 4 weeks. Even though I didn't want to, I ended up walking with Mr. Marriott, Dillon and Hugo to the Richardson barber shop

---