The Stories That Surround Us

The Stories That Surround Us

 

            I know it has been awhile since I have made any blog post for my horror or this hunting and fishing blog but that past few months have been pretty busy for me. I have been working on my first book which has been slow going but I think it is turning out to be a great story that surely at least one reader will find amazing. Today I am going to write a bit off my normal topics. Just in the twenty minutes that I was in the barber shop today I saw something today that really made me proud to be an American and a soldier.

            In the military we have to keep up our military appearance which means every week I need to get a haircut so today was my first chance to get this done. As I was walking in to the building to the barber shop I watched an elderly couple ahead of me. There was a set of automatic doors and a set of manual doors at the entrance, the man was feebly prying the manual doors open while the woman shuffled through the automatic doors quietly calling, “Herbert, this way is easier.”

“I can do it.” He said. Some people would look at this as the woman was smarter, I looked at it as the man was hard headed and stuck in his ways. I smiled at the elderly lady and she smiled back as her husband shuffled into the barber shop and found a chair. He had forgotten to grab a number before he sat down so I had pulled one from the machine for him and his wife told me thank you as the old man growled at me and said, “I could have done it.”

“I know you could buddy. I’m just helping.” I said. His wife smiled at me again and said, “It is ok. His brain ain’t right.”

            I had to laugh. I don’t know how many times my own wife has used this to describe me to others or even to our own children when something happens. “Oh his brain is just squishy, he’ll be fine.” The old man’s number was called and he fought the shakes to get to his feet the shuffled to the barber chair and then once again fought to sit in the slightly spinning chair. Though the man was confident in his movements, he was sure that he could do what he intended he could do, I caught him stealing a glance back at his wife as if to see if she was still there. Whether the man meant it or not, I had this quick thought race through my head as if he was being detached from her. It seemed as if she was his lifeline, as if she had been helping him for so long and this trip to the barber chair was going to be a long journey for him without her. As he sat in the chair the barber asked him what type of hair cut he would like he began to look very confused and started to shake. Apparently the barber had cut the man’s hair before and looked towards his wife who stood and walked to him.

“Herb? You want them to just trim it like usual right?” she said in a way that instantly made me smile. The man’s mind had to have been slipping for a while because she had already mastered her methods for dealing with daily speed bumps. By asking the question in this way she made it seem as if he was still doing things his way, he could still do it.

“Yes. The usual will be just fine, thank you.” Herb said as the confusion left his face and he sat a little straighter.

            The old woman came back over and sat next to me and said, “I worry about that old man. He used to be so strong.” I noticed that she wasn’t looking at him anymore; she was looking past him as if she was looking far into her past to different times. “He would never let another person cut his hair when he was in the army. He had his own clippers that he would shave it down every Sunday and he would look so handsome. Then he got them shakes and started loosen a bit of his mind and I wouldn’t let him use them no more so we come here every Tuesday because the line isn’t so long.”

“Yeah I like coming on Tuesdays too. The weekends are always so packed and I really don’t like being around people.” I said.

She laughed and said, “You sound like Herb. When he came back from his third tour in Vietnam he told me he just didn’t understand people anymore. He just got to where we didn’t want to be around anyone but family.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I do the same thing.”

“I don’t know how you guys do it.” She said.

“Do what?” I asked her.

“How you guys live this life. I look at Herb now, knowing the man that he used to be and what he is now and I can’t believe what all he gave for his country. It makes me sad that a man as great as Herb can live out the rest of his days like this, unknown for what he has done for freedom, for his country, for America. Does it seem fair?”

“We don’t do it for the glory. We do it because it is our job. I am sure Herb would say the same thing.” I said.

“Yes he would. You sound like my Herb. You know what else he would say?”

“What?” I said with a smile.

“It is what it is. He says that all the time. It is what it is.”

This Herb was starting to sound like my kind of guy because I have been known to say that from time to time.

“Your Herb sounds like one heck of a man, ma’am.”

She smiled and said, “He is.”

            About that time Herb was done with his haircut so I stood and helped him get down from the barber’s chair to which I was awarded a growl and witnessed some of that fire in his eyes and then he stopped and stared at my chest and pointed with a shaking finger at my combat action badge.

“Combat action badge ain’t it?”
“Yes sir.”
“What you get it for?”

“Combat.”

“Good answer.”

Herb smiled and patted me on the chest and walked out with his wife, his head held high, with a bit of a shuffle but I am pretty sure that shuffle was an airborne shuffle. I am not sure why my conversation with the elderly woman, who I never learned her name, and Herb seemed so huge to me today but it did. I think that maybe it was because it seemed like it was a glimpse into my own future if I am granted a chance to live that long. Maybe it was just my connection with a warrior from another generation, I don’t know but I figured I would share this with you all. Thank you for reading and hopefully here this week there will be another fishing story up for you all to read!