I saw a friend at church recently and said, “Hey, you got your ears lowered.” He looked at me like I had three heads and said he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. When I was growing up, that was a common phrase — if my dad was going to get a haircut, he almost always said, “I’m going to get my ears lowered.” In fact, just about everyone said it, no one hardly ever said they were going to get a haircut.
I admit that I hadn’t heard the expression in a long time, and it just kind of popped out, but I was still amazed that my friend swore he had never heard it and had no idea what it meant. Actually, this slang term always made more sense to me than a lot of the others that I heard — when you get a haircut, it appears there’s a larger distance between your ears and the ends of your hair…. giving the illusion that your ears have been lowered.
I guess this is just something else that shows my age — it probably falls into the category of an old fashioned (i.e. corny) sense of humor. I also remember when I was a kid, when someone would ask, “D’y get a haircut?” we’d always answer “No, I got ‘em all cut.”
Of course just getting a haircut itself was a lot different than it is today. When I was a kid growing up in Maysville, we had a couple of barbershops — that’s where men got their hair cut (or “ears lowered”) and there were a couple of beauty shops — that’s where women got their hair cut, or whatever they had done to it. If it was a barbershop, it had a barber pole outside.
I remember my dad always took me to get my ears lowered. When we went in, the barbers (usually two) both acknowledged us and spoke while they clipped away. We always just took a seat, there was no signing in or anything like that — we just looked around and saw who was ahead of us. My dad usually talked to people and I usually looked a a comic book — I remember the barber shop always had comic books for kids. I always kind of listened to the conversation(s) because the barber shop was where ordinary farmers and businessmen solved the world’s problems.
When the barber finished cutting someone’s hair, they left and whoever was next just climbed into the chair — everyone always knew who was next. Then they’d start a conversation with the barber about the weather, or fishing or hunting, sports (usually baseball) or maybe some town issue.
When it was my turn, the barber put a board across the arms of the barber chair to make me taller and it was hard to sit still when the scissors and clippers got around my ears. I remember knowing when the barber was about finished, when he put some lather on the back of my neck and made a few swipes with a straight razor.
All barbershops (at least all good barbershops) had a barber pole — and it was in good working order, with those red and white strips spinning around. When I was a kid, I don’t remember ever having my hair cut in a barber shop with more than three chairs — most only had two. And most of the good or popular shops had a deer head or a fish or something hanging on the wall.
Today, I get my hair cut where Claire gets her hair done — it’s honestly not a “cool” place. No talk about fishing or hunting, or sports, political issues… no deer heads on the wall — not even any straight razors.
No wonder “getting my ears lowered” has turned into just another chore to check off my list.
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