"What kind of haircut do you want," asks the owner.
"One like my dad," says the kid, "with a hole in the top."
Today I made my regular stop at Barbary's Barber Shop on Main Street in Laconia. (I know, what's with that name? I guess the first owner was Barbary the Barber.) My favorite guy, Dan, the owner, was not there. He's gone on a two-month vacation.
"Last year around this time he had his heart attack and was out for three months," says Don, the guy who'll cut my hair today. "I hear he never took a day off. So this year I guess he thought the place was in good hands and he went away."
"I guess it's better to spend the money on a hotel room than I hospital room," I say.
I ask Don for a short haircut, like I always do, and he does a stupendous job. Even cuts away at those weird hairs that have begun growing out of my ears and other places hairs aren't supposed to grow - or to show, anyway.
But when he held up the mirror, I saw a problem.
He'd given me my dad's haircut. With a hole in the middle...
Later I drove down to Alton. Will they hold the annual Fly-In this month? The Alton Bay airfield is the only wintertime airfield officially recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration in the contiguous 48 states. The low-key event is fabulous, with lots of little planes flying in from all over, the folks eating at Shibley's-At-The-Pier or from one of the little food carts that appear for the weekend event.
But there were icehouses as I drove by there so I'm guessing things will be okay. Those little planes at the Fly-In are actually not very heavy. Some weigh less than your compact car.
Still organizers of this weekend's 3rd annual Pond Hockey Tourney had to switch the event from Meredith Bay on Winnipesaukee to Lake Waukewan because local temps haven't been low enough for the ice on the Big Lake to be at least one-foot thick, which is what they need for safety. But it shouldn't make much difference - the pond hockey is a blast, drawing in more than 200 teams of five or six players, along with their wives, kids, parents, friends, etc... Thousands of people, some who've never seen the Lakes Region before. It's a great family event. (And as one local put it, these folks don’t start drinking until they're off the ice.)
