Get Your Hair Did
With a few minor changes, it could be 1948. The wars in Europe and the Pacific are over and the men who survived have all come home. Things are changing, of course. The women who’d been working the factories and offices have all been sent back to their homes and kitchens. It hasn’t been easy; there have been a lot of divorces. But here in the beauty parlor the women can say all the things they can’t say to their men. It’s a sanctuary of sorts. It’s nice to be made all pretty…but they’d come here even without that. They can relax here.
Or it could be 1968. Half a decade has past since the president was shot, and things are changing. The war in Vietnam is getting worse and worse, despite what the government keeps saying. The women worry about their children, half of whom are in uniform and the other half have become hippies and moved to San Francisco. Their daughters are threatening to burn their bras and the clothes they wear are just a scandal. All the kids, it seems, are taking drugs; what’s to become of them is anybody’s guess. Their husbands are spending too much time at the office, but that’s the way to succeed in business. Still, if it weren’t for the beauty parlor and the Valium, it would be difficult to cope.
But it’s not 1948 or 1968. It’s 2008 and things have changed, oh yes they have. There’s a war on, of course…but there always is. The women are still worried about their families, but their families have changed too. Their son is getting married to another man, their daughter is thinking about joining the Marines, their husband’s company is talking about laying people off. Where else could you talk about those things, except at the beauty parlor?
But fewer women are coming these days…not to get their hair done and not to find a sanctuary where they can talk freely. Things are changing. Except for the war, things are changing. Things are always changing.
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