keeping up on the news at the all night barber shop

keeping up on the news at the all night barber shop

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Two or three times a month late at night I stop in at Howard's Barber shop in Greentown and catch all the latest gossip happening from Canton to Akron and get a very light trim on my haircut. Billie Howard the owner of Howard's Barber shop stays open all night. It's the only all night barber shop in these parts I suppose although I never checked into the matter.

Billie had some strange ideas but I loved being in his shop. First off the girls from the Canton Surge cheerleaders used to come in at all hours after a night of partying to have their hair dyed or their eye brows contoured so there was always a lot to look at Billie's all night Barber shop. Other nights if no beautiful women were around Billie would be pontificating on the economy or jobs situation locally.

Billie had an opinion on everything. That's not unusual for a barber but Billie used to listen to the news from Asia or Australia late at night and then predict what would happen locally with the stock market, jobs situation and interest rates. Billie was a real gas. Everything is connected Billie used to say.

Billie also would hear something about the civil War on television, or the underground sewer system in London, or how almonds were a cure for melancholy in a magazine or on television and then lecture for a few nights there at his shop on the subject. It was interesting to listen to and many nights even when I didn't need a haircut I would drive down and read a magazine and listen to Billie talk while he cut hair.

A few weeks ago I got into an argument with Billie Howard at his shop and I don't think I will be going back. Well maybe just for haircuts. Billie took me aside one night when no one else was around to hear and told me I should get some things to do in the middle of the night rather than to sit around in his all night barber shop when I didn't really need a haircut.

Billie hurt my feelings by what he said to me but even though I don't need  a haircut or a trim yet three nights in a row I have wanted to go down to his all night barber shop when I woke up in the middle of the night at three AM with nothing to do.

Billie Howard's Barber shop is bright late at night and sometimes there is a cheerleader or two there and I enjoy listening to Billie talk about interest rates in Australia or unemployment in America.

I think I will wait a few more days and then drive down to Billie Howard's all night barber shop if not for a haircut maybe to keep up on all the news happening overseas late at night and to get Billie's spin on how the world will be changed by what happens late at night in Asia or in Europe.