My Dad - "The Barber"

My Dad did not abide the hippie philosophy or styles. If anything, my Dad was the poster child for the "Un-Hippie." And he intended for his boys to be the milk carton face of clean-cut American youth. When we left the barber shop, we had "whitewalls" above our ears, a blinding white "taper cut" on our necks and a "part" with a comb-over that Donald Trump would envy!

In the mid 1960's, when haircuts went up two bits from $1.50 to $1.75*, my Dad had had enough. With two growing sons and himself to keep sheared, it was more economically advantageous to buy a pair of electric hair clippers and just "Do it yourself!"

In the southwest corner of the basement of the new farm house at County Line, my Dad set up shop. And for a couple of years, every few weeks (when we started looking shaggy) we would trudge downstairs and Dad would "lower our ears."

Sometimes, even the trip back up the stairs was memorable...such as the time I "fell up" the stairs, hit the metal strip on the top step and had to get six stitches to mend my chinny chin chin!

After a couple of years, Dad must have tired of hair cutting because the clippers were put away and we went back to Squires Barber Shop on Washington Avenue. It was quite a few years before they were brought (however briefly) out of retirement...

It was a hot summer day at the Farley House when they came out for one more meteoric flash of duty...

Our old dog, Sandy, was really miserable in the summer heat. She was a German Shepherd, Collie mix and had a heavy coat of hair. Dad decided to remedy this situation and rousted out the old electric hair clippers from days gone by.

Dad put a bench to sit on out in the driveway in front of the shop and ran an extension cord for the clippers. After testing them out to see if they would still work, he told us boys to "bring her on over." Sandy was a pretty docile old dog, and she didn't really put up a fuss when we led her up to Dad. She had NO idea what the result of the the next few minutes would be...

Dad started at her neck, right behind her ears, and began the shearing. He must have had a gauge on the clippers because from what I remember, it was a pretty even, smooth cut. He proceeded down her neck to her withers, down her chest and front legs and then started shaving down her back, sides, and belly. Ever so often, we would have to turn Sandy around so Dad could make sure he was getting both sides evenly.

When Dad had worked his way back to Sandy's loins, right in front of her thighs, the unthinkable happened... THE CLIPPERS QUIT WORKING!!

Try as he might, Dad could not get them to working again. And, when you think about it, they had just done the equivalent of about seventy-five men's haircuts in the space of about thirty minutes! No wonder they quit.

But now, Ole Sandy was an interesting spectacle. She was shaved from her head down to her "waist line" and the long hair from there on down made it look like she had a little pair of pants on!!

Now us boys thought this was just about the most hilarious thing in the world! But Mom...not so much so... Mom felt so sorry for Old Sandy that she even pleaded with Dad to "cut the rest of it off." I believe Dad would have if he could have but the clippers were shot.

To Ole Sandy's credit, it didn't seem to bother her too much. In fact she seemed quite pleased with herself. I don't know if it was the stylish trousers she now had or just that she was much cooler. Anyway, the image is firmly etched into my mind and I'll never forget the "Summer of Short-Britches Sandy!!"

*From my limited research, this is about what a haircut cost in 1966.

Of Tractor Axles and Hacksaws

I really can't say that my Dad was stubborn (any more than is usually present in the human male species.) But he was ingenious and tenacious.

In the last few years of his life, Dad bought and sold tractors. In our little shop, we would weld-up, fix-up, sand-down and paint-up every kind of old tractor you can imagine. John Deere, 8N and 9N Fords, Minneapolis-Moline, Allis Chalmers, Case, Massey-Harris, Farmall...

Somewhere along the line, Dad bought a John Deere MT Row-Crop Tractor. If you're not familiar with this kind of tractor, I'll try to explain and then look at the pictures below. The Row-Crop tractor (usually) had a tricycle front-end (single or double tire close together). The back tires were adjustable, in and out, to match the "rows" between the crops. If it was wide rows, the tires would be way out on the end of the axle. Narrow rows? The tires would be close in to the tractor body with the axle sticking way out past the tires. And this is where the problem began for Dad.

Since we didn't have any crops that needed worked, he moved the tires in real close to the tractor body. And... since he didn't sell it right away, he started using it around the place for bush-hogging and other tasks. However...he would forget about the long piece of the axle sticking out past the back tire and when he would "Hug" some object... such as a tree... a gate post... the shop building... KER-BLAM!! The axle would catch the tree, gate post or building and "Tear Up Old Jack"!!

Finally Dad had had ENOUGH! He announced to us boys that "We're gonna cut them axles off..."

We backed the tractor into the shop and he commenced to cutting the axles off with our cutting torch.

Let me say that he TRIED to cut the axles off with a cutting torch.

These axles were at least 2½" - 3" in diameter, made of carbon steel and our little cutting torch wouldn't even get it hot enough to make a "cut". You might as well have been spitting on it!

Dad was not deterred... His next statement was "Go Get The Hacksaw"

If this seems laughable to you, believe you me, it wasn't to us! Ralph and I just saw our afternoon disappear into a little pile of metal hacksaw shavings!

We began "hacking" on one of the axles. After about fifteen minutes, we had made some progress but were down to nubbins on the hacksaw blade. With no replacement blades to be found in the shop, Dad says "Boys, let's go to town."

We drove to Western Farm and Home (or as we called it.."Fester's" which was short for "Fester's Worm In Hole") to buy more blades. Now... Dad didn't just buy a couple of blades. This was a serious undertaking... He bought a WHOLE CASE! Forty-Eight Hacksaw Blades!!!

And then we drove back home...

And began "Hacking" away at them axles... Dad would hack awhile, Ralph would take over and hack awhile, I would take over and hack awhile and then back to Dad. We thought of giving Mom a turn but she was busy supplying us with iced tea!

After about four hours of hacking, a couple dozen blades wore out and a couple of gallons of tea...Both ends of the axles were cut off! Dad used the grinder to grind off the sharp edges and he now had a tractor with a much narrower rear-end!!

Never let it be said that my Dad was faint of heart when it came to matters of Tractor Axles and Hacksaws!

(As an aside... I was visiting with my friend, Danny Yarbrough about this and he said he had seen this very tractor with the axles cut off and wondered why and how someone would do such a thing. He said this particular model was a collector's item, but with the axles cut off, was basically worthless.)

After visiting with Danny today, 09/07/16, he said it was a John Deere 40 and not a Farmall like I thought it was.