Last night I wandered back into my own stomping grounds so that I could get my hair cut. I have cut parts of my own hair when I was desperate but eventually I have to give in and have it done right. My friend Betty cuts & colors my hair every 4 weeks. It's not just me getting a haircut but it turns into one big social event! I get to visit with all of my old co-workers and sometimes I even meet up with a previous client or two. I rented a booth from Betty for 10 years and we went through a lot together. When I first started with her we were in the middle of town on Grand Ave. (I think every town has a "Grand Ave!") Ours was no different. We had a huge salon, 21 booths in all!, and most of them were full. As I have said before in previous posts, everyone who was anyone eventually made it into our salon. We were always busy. We had Barbers, Cosmetologists, Nail Technicians, and even a masseuse.
Betty and I were reminicing about all of this last night and a few of the more memorable moments came up in our conversation. After I had been working in the salon for about a year something that would change everything in our little world happened. One day a man walked in and I remember wondering if he was an inspector or some other official just by the way he was dressed and by the way he carried himself. After he was gone we all found out just what kind of official he was. Betty had tears in her eyes so we knew it probably wasn't good! Turns out that the man was a process server and WE HAD JUST BEEN EVICTED!! Betty didn't own the building and apparently it had been sold. The new owners were giving us just THIRTY DAYS to get out! My guess was they were pretty anxious to move in. Naturally Betty started making calls immediately to get more information. That's when we found out just who these new owners were. Surprise!!! It was going to be a PORN shop! Boy, did this cause quite a reaction in our little town and most of it wasn't positive! It wasn't too long before we had church ladies outside picketing! I told you we were always involved in every scandal that happened in our town and this was no exception. Seems it was hard for people to understand that it wasn't our choice to move and therefore, the PORN shop wasn't OUR doing either.
Now 30 days is not a very long time in which to pick up and move a business. It took us a week just to find a new place. When we did the building was just bare walls, no hot water, ans it was obviously going to take some hard work. Every day Betty and I would take care of the clients, a full time job in itself, and every night both of our Ex's and the two of us would put another 6 to 8 hours of work into putting the new salon together. One weekend the guys even had to dig a hole in one of the hallways just to reach the pipe that would give us hot water. Our carpenter was an old high school friend of Betty's by the name of "Frankie" and he was quite a character. He was not only very talented but he kept us laughing. My father-in-law who was a full time Deacon at our local Catholic Church even lent us his talent for wall papering. Everyone gave us a hand so we could be ready for opening day
Sometimes after a long day & night we would head over to Betty's house to soak in her hot tub and drink "fuzzy navels." Believe me, we not only needed them, we had earned them!
It was a challenge but we opened right on time and our clients never had to miss a day! The salon was smaller, only 7 booths, but some of the girls left us and opened their own salon. Considering all of us except Frankie were not in the business of building places, we were pretty impressed with what we had accomplished.
Not long after we had moved, Betty, myself, and our now ex's, were out for a night of dinner and drinks. After we had finished we decided to take a little trip to visit the old building that our salon had been in to see what they had done with the place. Betty and I had to have plenty to drink just to walk into the place. The guys weren't bothered by it at all, of course. It was pouring down rain so we didn't get any time to stand outside and think about it before we hurried in. Where the front of the salon had been there was a place to purchase anything you can imagine you would find in a porn shop. As we walked towards the middle of the place Betty's ex had to let the clerk know that he noticed they hadn't fixed the leak in the roof yet. Where Betty's booth used to be were all of the racks of magazines and books. My booth was a display case. Continuing through the store we made our way to the very back and found all of the private "video booths." Naturally the guys were loving all of this and they were making fun of Betty and I 'cuz we couldn't wait to get out of there! I have never been back to that place and I don't feel like I am missing anything!
By the time Betty was finished cutting my hair we had laughed until we cried. As we headed out for dinner we made sure we had an appointment set to do it all again!
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