Barber Shop Stories - Bob's Barber Shop in Casa View

From the time I was seven in 1954 until I graduated from high school in 1965, I went to only one barber shop.  Casa View Barber Shop in Casa View Shopping Center at 2522 Gus Thomasson DA7-327-9752.

I first came in with my dad.  You always had to wait to get your hair cut.  When it was your turn, the barber would put a wooden plank across the arm rests and would crank up the chair high enough so he could cut your hair with scissors.

He put a big apron around your neck with a small piece of tissue, securing it always a little too tight, so the small cut hair ends wouldn't fall underneath your shirt.

He would always take off the apron with a flourish and finish off the back of your neck with electric clippers.  At the end he would put a little powder on a thin bristled brush and wipe away any stray cut hairs.  The small kids always got a lollipop.

I felt so proud the day when I finally grew enough where he didn't have to use the plank, even though it meant no lollipop.

Since I was born my hair was always parted on the right because I'm left handed.  I always used a black Ace comb, the same kind I still carry today in my right back pocket - my wallet goes on the left.

For two years I wore a flat top and used Butch Wax to hold the front up.  That's how you see me in my Eagle Scout photograph in 1962.  Entering Bryan Adams high school, I started to let my hair grow back.

We started going to the New Fine Arts Cinema (note "cinema" and not "movie theater") in Snider Plaza in University Park off Hillcrest Avenue where they showed a lot of European movies.  I liked how the European male actors looked with a full head of hair, hair following close around your ears, not the "wide and high" edging the barbers here almost always did, and full hair in the back with no tapering.

My dad always went to get his hair cut from Bob Ridge who occupied the chair at the end of the store.  The other barbers were organized by seniority, the newest barber had the chair right by the front window, to help him gather his own clientele.  Most everybody always went to the same barber.

My barber was Harless Olgesby from Arkansas.  I don't know if I took him pictures, but eventually he cut my hair exactly how I wanted it.  These were pre-Beatle days, but when you look at our 1965 high school annual pictures, I had some of the longest hair in the school.

It was always neat, the school never said anything, and I felt comfortable with the merest "hint" of European movie sophistication.