Memories of my Dad..Saturdays

My dad was a self employed Barber. He had his shop in town and it was open Tue-Sat. Every once in a while we would get to go with dad to work on Saturday. This was always a special treat, as being a child in a large family of 6 kids, one to one time with a parent didn't happen as often as we would like. We would leave the house early and stop to get a donut and hot cocoa. Then it was to the shop to work. We would get to help sweep up hair, talk the customers, visit the shops that were along the same strip. At one time there was this glass shop next to the barber shop. The lady was really nice and I loved to look at the little blown glass animals. That year for Christmas, Dad bought each of us a blown glass animal. There was the shoe shop that was owned by George. I got my first pair of cowboy boots there. As I grew the shops would change. At one time there was a Pizza place on the far end. I got my first paying job there at 15. Made 3.10/hr. That was alot of money.

For lunch we would go the Chinese Place, it was always fun, as dad knew the owners and we would get extra cookies. Sometimes we would go to McDonalds. I still have a peanuts glass from the late 60's that I got. My mom had put them away and when she was sorting and cleaning out the house. She gave each of us kids one.

Dad had this old cash register. It was so fun to play with and take the customers money and give them their change. Occasionally they would let me keep the change. Then after work dad would take us across the parking lot to King's to spend the money on something.

The other fun thing to do was to play with the barber chairs. We would usually just pull the release so we could spin around til we were super dizzy.

These were all great and fun times. One my dad passed away, by that time he had another barber working with him. Dennis left the name the same and my oldest son was able to have his first haircut there. It is gone now, in fact the entire strip mall is gone. The only thing left from my growing up days is the Chinese food place. Dennis retired this year, when he had to move the shop, he called my mom, to make sure it was okay to not carry on the name. It was fine. I still stop by and see Dennis every few years. It was great to share stories.

That is all for this time.
I think next month...I will share about Camping with Dad.