HAIR - those were the days

I remember growing up that I always wore a burr haircut until I was about in the 8th grade and that took some talking to get mom and dad to go along.  As I remember a lot of folks got their underwear in their crack over the Beatles having long hair and then all the teenagers wanting to do the same.  It was pretty easy for me to go along with the folks and not like long hair but somewhere along the line I had to ask myself, "WHY?".

I remembered hearing that long hair was for for drug users, hippies, and bums.  I know there were even folks who trimmed a person's hair without consent when it got a little long.  Now that I think about it that was the first time I knew I was prejudice against a person and it down right disgusted me to think I was prejudice.  My folks taught me to never be that way but on the other hand dad did not want me to have long hair.  So for me I had to figure out what was going on.

I figured out there were two things getting mixed up and miss-construed (is that a word).  First, I learned that the hair did not make the person and Second, I still did not have to like their hair.  You see we can respectfully disagree but remain friends.  Also if you take the time you will learn about everyone that has something different than you is still a good person inside but just think a little different.

That is kind of like when your mom got on to you for wearing pants with holes in them.  Now that is another topic based on today when folks buy pants that have holes in them already for an even higher price, go figure.  Now I know everyone born back when I was young their parents would patch every hole in their pants, shirt or socks and if you wore something with holes you were going to get your rear-end chewed out.  People were embarrassed to have folks think they could not afford clothes without holes.  The point is it was not the pants with holes that was the problem but what folks thought of you if you did not look your best.  There was a standard of respect for yourself and for others that was important.

OK, back to HAIR.  Well once I figured out that long hair did not make the person another issue came up and it was just the opposite.  Girls had short skirts.  I mean to tell you everybody in town especially the principals at school starting with Pool, Treadway and Morris plus all others and the school board got their underwear in a wad over short skirts.  Now I do not know of a single boy in high school that objected to short skirts including me.  In fact the girls seemed to like it pretty good even when they got in trouble.  My wife wore those short skirts when she was in school and I remember Cindy, Jeri, Jenni, Marsha, Terry, Fran, Linda, and Frank (that was a joke- Frank never wore a skirt that I knew of but AJ did in the powder puff football game ) all wore very short skirts.  Actually I don't know of a single girl who did not and who was not threatened to be sent home for the same.

BUT HAIR?  What could that hurt?  I got in trouble by Mr. Treadway for having long sideburns.  Kenny Bowling, Larry Graham, Neal Pennington, Chuck Taylor, and the list goes on ALL had sideburns longer than mine but I GOT IN TROUBLE!  It really was not that bad but I did get talked to and told to cut'em.

Well that brings me to when I slipped away to college.  I grew my hair out over my shoulders and it actually looked pretty good and I was not a druggie, hippie, or bum, no matter what folks thought.  I did get it cut so I could get a job as I understood "THE GOLDEN RULE".

If you don't know it, here it is:  HE WHO MAKES THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Don't judge a book or person by its cover, get to know it, look inside
• The heart of a man or woman is their character and that is the one thing only you can give up, protect it
• Isn't it great that even though we all had our challenges we turned out OK

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com