MR. PHIL WILL SEE YOU NOW

I wanted to go to college.
My grades were not scholorship getting grades.
My folks didn't have the funds.

One of my brothers joined the Air Force to learn a trade.
He learned court reporting.
He has his own court reporting firm in Kansas to this day.
He was good to me when I was a boy.

The military was not for me, I was already well versed in the trade thing.

My other brother had his pilots license by the time he graduated high school, was earning a good living working at the local airport.
Going to school to learn to fly jets.
He worked really hard, stuck to it for years, got every license a pilot can get.
It was hard, I give him credit.
He's had a long career as director of flight operations for some big ass maker of war related crap that made him rich and the repuklicans he worked for richer.

Maybe I could have done the coffee tea or me thing, maybe.

But not on any jet he was flying cause I didn't like him, he was an asshole. He's still an asshole who's learned the meaning of some big words like...bigot, racist, homophobe, sexist, ageist. You name an "ist", he was it. He's still all those things except the homophobe part.
I see him pretty often these days because along the way I learned about forgiving and compassion,( and hard to believe), it's not only about ME. His wife and children are wonderful loving people (in spite of him) and I want to be in their lives. Aren't I Wonderful!

So.

Since our mom had a beauty shoppe.....
I started beauty school weekends/holidays my junior year.
All summer before senior year.
Weekends/holidays all senior year.
Finished in August.
The plan....get my license.....save some money.....start college... after a year.

HA!

A little interjection here.
In my heart of hearts all I really wanted to do was move to NYC. I didn't have the courage at the time to even speak those words out loud. But I'll tell you this. I know the meaning of the words, burning desire.

I got licensed in August as planned. How, I do not know.
I gave lousy haircuts. I couldn't roll a perm.
I turned a womans hair greenish/orange trying to tint it brown.
Once I burned this poor Asian's womans hair and scalp so bad during a perm she had brillo fuzz, coming out in patches, with big ugly blisters on her scalp by the time I took the perm rollers off.

Poor thing.

I was the worst hairburner I've ever seen except when it came to BACKCOMBING.

It was the 60's after all. Big buffants, beehives, extra large "That Girl" flips. Bubbles the size of basketballs.

The first job I got in KCMO was in a salon frequented by high class hookers.
They did not want pin curls and waves.
They wanted, More Tease, More Tease, there's a Shriners Convention in town, I want to be noticed!
And baby I could give it to them, right down my alley.

My best and favorite was "Candy". She worked cocktail waitressing at a hotel lounge down the street from the salon.
She met her clients there.

Phone rings: Mr. Phil, you have a call.
Hi Doll it's Candy. Listen, I've got a 5 and then a 6:30. I'm gonna fly in at about 6:10 for a re-comb cause the 5 always messes my hair and for 80 bucks for the 12 minutes it takes him to get his pants off, his rocks off and get his pants back on, he can mess my hair.
The 6:30 is the guy who likes that red bow in my hair, I'm bringing it along.
You wanna meet me for dinner at 8, the 6:30 always tells the hotel dining room to let me sign on his room and I don't have anything until LARRY at 11.


Larry...Clark Gable drop dead gorgeous. Friendly, touchy...crazy making to the boy hairburner.

Larry would come with Candy, prepay her bill, always giving me a big tip, then chat me up while she was under the dryer.

Candy sez one day, I see Larry can't keep his hands off you. You think he swings both ways?
I know you'll find this hard to believe, I didn't know what "swings both ways" meant. Really. Remember I was just 17, lately arrived from a country town of 149 people.

Me...swings both ways???, what's that???
Candy...he likes boys and girls both.
Me..you mean for sex?
Candy...you know honey, sometimes I forget you just got to town.

I loved her, adored her.
She taught me sooooo much.
She was sooooo kind to me.
She was my client for about a year, and then...

She made the mistake of falling in love with Larry.

When she got pregnant, (60's remember).
He gave her 150 bucks to "take care of it".

She did take care of it.
With a catheter.
I was there.
Three days and nights.

Some days later she went home to Omaha to her two small children.

I never heard.

rQm