A Hard Day’s Night ​

At 6:30 am, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a long walk . The snow was floating down like large white feathers and it was difficult to see as I tracked onward with no particular destination. Then, to no surprise at all, I could see the old barber pole alight at Kenneth Lamb’s barber shop. I decided to go in and “sit a spell,” as Mr. Lamb would put it.

Mr. Lamb opened up in January of 1964 as the Beatles made their historical debut on the Ed Sullivan Show a month later on February 9th (Rolling Stone). You may be wondering what this has to do with Mr. Lamb or his barber shop, well think in terms of hair styles for the gentlemen of the day. Before the Beatles, men wore a rather dapper hairstyle- neat and tidy requiring maintenance every two weeks or so. After the Beatles, men started to let their hair grow and grow, and barbers gained the inheritance of empty chairs in their shops. As for Mr. Lamb, he worked harder. He giggled at one of the Beatles' first releases in 1964 called “A Hard Day’s Night” as he had to work 72 hours a week to make a living wage and support his family. Mr. Lamb has worked six days a week (6:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday-Friday, and 6:00 am – 12:00 pm on Saturday) since he opened his business 52 years ago- “never give up” is his mantra.

​Mr. Lamb has been my psychologist, counselor, and mentor since I walked into his shop 5 years ago. I remember the first time I went in -(it’s always a little nerve-racking to go into a barber shop you weren’t raised in and let a stranger go fiddle around in your hair)- Mr. Lamb makes people feel at home, along with the warm welcome of Mr. Jerry Ripley, I have been going to see Mr. Lamb twice a month ever since then, and have looked quite forward to my cut and three pieces of bubble-gum. That’s right, and I accept this offering like any five-year-old by cramming all three pieces in my jaw, because that’s how Mr. Lamb views those of us that are forty to fifty years his junior, as youngsters. Kenneth Lamb can teach us all a huge lesson if we could only follow his example and treat all perfect strangers like that starry-eyed kid about to receive a hair-cut and a hand full of Dubble-Bubble for the first time.