Barbershop Talk

Well, I don't have the vaguest idea what they talk about in a lady's beauty shop, but every couple of months I go down to St. Albans to Andy's Barbershop on Fairfax Street. Andy's Barbershop is located in the basement of his home across from Holy Cross Cemetery. He is open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 8-4 and on Saturdays from 8-12. Andy is in his 80s and was once a barber here in Fairfax at a couple of locations in the center of town.

Andy knows a lot of the old timers here and always tries to catch up on the latest news here in town. Andy is good friends with Old Mr. Levesque of Brady & Levesque Funeral Home, and I always kid him when I see the car parked in his driveway, mentioning the fact that I didn't know whether he was available for business or not. Also usually call him, to make sure he is open for business.

This week, after his asking me if I wanted the usual, we started talking about funerals and our thoughts on wakes, caskets, cremations and the like. Andy said he was going to talk to his family regarding a wake - I told him good luck, as Maryann and I have our tombstone up at St. Luke Cemetery and have never yet got our kids to even look at it. I told him, Maryann told me that she doesn't want any visiting hours. She says, if they can't come to see me when I'm alive, not to bother after she is dead. Andy says, his wife doesn't want people going around, looking in the casket and saying, "My, doesn't she look nice."

As for me, I think that cremations don't give you the closure when you go to a funeral home and an urn is sitting there. Of course looking at it conservatively, it does save you a lot of money.

Well, now for those of you that know me, you know that my haircut does not take a long time to complete, so this conversation did go on for a while afterwards. Anyhow, all set for another 8 weeks and wonder what we will talk about the next time.