STEELERS!

I am back. I forgot to mention something yesterday.....STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to thank my, I have long taken ownership of this team, Pittsburgh Steelers won the franchise's fifth Super Bowl on Sunday. I remember the first four fondly, but then again being a pre-teen and teen at the time, it something to recall fondly. I had a full head of straight hair then, and permed head for the third (1979).

It got me to thinking about my hair again. I know it was the style back in the disco days (daze?) to have perms. We all wanted to look like Gino Vanelli. Now, the style is is not nearly as hairy. I did not want to look like Gino Vanelli. In fact, I thought he really looked like Chewbacca with a perm. That was never a look I aspired to.

In late 1978, the dude who cut my hair, given how straight my hair is/was it had only 1 style so I cannot call the dude a stylist, talked me (and my mother) into giving me the full perm. I sat there with curlers in my hair, smelling that perming solution, which by the way was and is a more pleasant smell than the reek emitted by Stinky Guy. It was freakish. When all was said and done, my hair, long, fine and straight, was curly. I took the bus home.

I could not escape the smell of that perming solution, though. It was not pleasant. Nobody told me that I should not wash my hair afterward, so I tried to wash that smell out with a few different shampoos to no avail. I guess that was why the curl was uneven. One side was puffier than the other, but looking back, perhaps that is my head. Then again, my second perm in 1979 was even and better......until it grew out and I had long straight hair at the top and these curls hanging on the bottom. My grade 10 school picture is quite a sight, but then again there were very few 15 year olds that took a good picture. Damn those gawky adolescent years, then again I did not care.

On my walk home from the bus stop, my mother would drive right past me. She said she did not recognize me when I gave her shit when I walked in the door. It made sense then, but subsequent events, life, makes me question her explanation. Then again, she has never, to the best of my knowledge, locked herself in the bathroom, so.....

I went to my friend Neil's house on our way to our other friend Neil's house. I got to the first house, and Neil 1 saw my hair and laughed his ass off. It was cruel in a sense, but Karma is a bitch and he would get his hair uppance later. He would end up with wild hair, so much so that when he arrived at my engagement party, he told me his hair was a mess because he had driven to the party with the window down. Given the disaster on head that morning, I think he drove with the window down and his head out of the window.

We get to Neil 2's house (around the corner) and Neil 2 chokes on his toothbrush. Why he was eating the thing, I still cannot understand. No laughter but his older brother had a perm. We went in the basement to see him and he and I compared notes and tugged on each other's curls. We bonded, but we would bond later in life as well. He is a great guy.

I got to school on the Monday and teachers would do a double take. In fact, the gym teacher would end up questioning my brother (6 years younger) if he was going to show up one day with curly hair like me. He did not.

I forgot to mention that with the curly hair, I had braces and that cheesy, teenage moustache. I was just too afraid to put a sharp blade on my face then. I would do it soon enough when Neil 2's brother would tell me that I looked like Ringo Starr. I just did not want to look like THAT Beatle, no offense Ringo. At least he did not say that I looked my mama beat me with an ugly stick, so thank goodness for small miracles.

Well, isn't it interesting how a Steeler victory in a Super Bowl got me on the subject of hair. Going to run. Ciao!