The Thanksgiving I Remember

Thanksgiving was approaching and mother asked me to get a decent haircut. The folks had invited a number of their relatives for Thanksgiving Dinner. She didn’t want to be embarrassed when it came to my hair. What’s the big deal? I am a teenager and like to have my hair long and uncombed. My hair is light brown and lots of curl in it. Dad referred to it as a MOP! I ignored my mother’s request. Later in the week, dad asked me to get a haircut so I would look presentable to our guests. I didn’t see any need to get a haircut. I liked my hair just the way it is. It wasn’t hurting anyone. So it took some time to wash and dry it and the folks insisted I do that each day.

My cousin, Gary was coming in one week before Thanksgiving. I always like Gary. He is about 6 years older than me, but we always did a lot of things together. I didn’t know what he was doing these days, but I could depend on us getting along and no doubt would find something really neat to do while he was here. Gary is, in many ways, just like me. He likes the relaxed look as I call it. I tried to copy his look. His parents always complained how he looked. I even grew a mustache and goatee just like his. I was quite proud of the length of my goatee. It was now about 3 inches long.

Dad asked me if I wanted to go along to pick up Gary at the Airport. I would miss this trip for the world. There would be a lot of catching up to do and we could compare hair and goatee. We arrived at the airport before his plane landed. We walked around while waiting for the plane to land. We noticed that it was going to be 30 minutes late. As we were walking, I heard someone say, “Hey Kid! Want a haircut?” I looked up and it was a young barber standing at the entrance of the barbershop. Dad said, “Curt! We have the time, how about getting your hair cut here and surprise your mother?” I said, “If I am ever going to get my hair cut, I will let Cal do it. I trust him.” Cal is the barber I go to when I really have to get a trim. He knows not to take any more off than necessary to make the folks happy. Dad just shook his head and we continued to walk. We finally made it to the gate where Gary would be arriving so we sat down to wait.

It wasn’t long before the announcement came over the speaker system that Gary’s flight had just landed and it would at the gate in 5 minutes. It wasn’t very long before people began to arrive from the plane. I kept looking for Gary. I knew I could tell him from the others with his long hair and goatee. On came the passengers. I figured he was sitting in the rear of the plane so he would be getting off last, on they came and no Gary. Could Gary have missed the plane? Finally someone tapped me on my shoulder and I turned around and saw this stranger looking at me. He asked me which way to the luggage area. I told him and then he began to laugh. Dad didn’t say a word.

I looked at him again. I thought, I am not going to mess with this Marine! Talk about Huge! His upper arms were as large as my upper leg. He was really built. I then looked up and saw a shining head. There wasn’t a single strand of hair on his entire head except for the eyebrows. I told him I would be happy to show him where the luggage would arrive. Dad said, “That’s a good idea Curt! You show this Marine where the luggage will be and I will wait for Gary.” Off I went talking to this Marine like I knew him all my life. I couldn’t get over how fantastic this guy was built. Of course his crowing glory was his dress uniform with that BALD head. Talk about outstanding. As we walked I asked him how he liked the Bald Head. He grinned and said, “You like that do you?” I told him I sure did, but I was quick to follow that statement up with “but it isn’t for me. I like this look!”

We arrived to the luggage area and the luggage began to arrive. I asked the Marine what he was looking for in the way of luggage. He told me he had his regular duffle bag. I could see one coming along the ‘belt.’ I asked the Marine if that was his and he said, “Yep! Do you want to catch it?” I reached out and took hold of it and I was surprised how heavy and bulky it was. I finally wrestled it off the ‘belt’ and gave it to the Marine. I told him I would have to get back to the gate to meet up with dad and Gary. The Marine thanked me for my help.

As I turned to go back to the gate, I walked right into dad. I said, “Where ’s Gary!” Dad smiled and said, “You have been talking to him for some time.” I turned around and the Marine was smiling. I said, “Your not my cousin, Gary!” “I’m afraid so,” replied the Marine. Dad began to laugh and then said, “Ok you guys! Let’s get going.” As we drove back from the airport, I had a lot of questions. In time they were all answered. I couldn’t get over how much Gary had changed. Man! Talk about change!

When we got home, mother was so glad to see Gary. Both she and dad knew that Gary had joined the Marines and had already made up his mind to make a career of it. Mother said, “Curt! Show Gary to his room. Gary, maybe you can talk some sense into this son of ours and convince him to get a decent haircut. Both his dad and I have been trying to get him to get it cut. It looks terrible.”

As we were going to Gary’s room, I said, “Don’t pay any attention to the folks. They have been on my case for a long time. I don’t want to get a haircut. I like it just the way it is.” Gary asked me what grade I was in school and I told him I was a junior. He asked me if I had a part-time job. I told him I had tried to get a job, but they aren’t hiring. Gary said, “Are they not hiring or are they not hiring young men that look like you?” I said, “Either way, they won’t hire me. I get pretty good grades but they aren’t interested.” Gary asked me what my grades were like and what was I taking and I told him. I was taking the Academic Courses but was barely passing them with a “C.” He asked me what I did after school and I told him I hung out with my friends. He wanted to know if my friends looked like me in dress, hair, etc. I told him that they looked like me.

When we got to his room, I stood for a few minutes and continued the talk. I then told him that he would want to unpack and relax before supper. I was surprised when he said, “No! I can unpack later. I want to go out for a brisk walk. Do you want to go with me?” Of course I would be delighted to go with him. He asked me to give him 5 minutes to change and he would be with me.

He changed into walking shorts and T-Shirt along with his walking shoes and off we went. I found it difficult keeping up with him. He sure was in great shape. Finally I asked if we could stop for a minute for me to get my breath. Gary said, “Cuz! You need to stop ‘hanging out’ and get into shape. You are a mess from head to toes and not only in appearance but in physical stamina.” As we continued to walk, I told him I would think about it. Just then, Gary said, “Let’s not think about it, but do it! We are going to start right now.”

Gary began to jog and I found it difficult to keep up with him. My clothing was in my way. The baggy pants and shirt didn’t help any. As we were jogging through town, Gary turned towards a barbershop. When he got there, he opened the door and motioned for me to enter. I thought he was going to have the barber shave his head. I entered and sat down. The barber was sitting on the chair reading Sports Illustrated. He got up and offered my cousin the chair. Gary said, “Sir! I don’t need a haircut, it’s my cousin here that needs one.” I suddenly looked up and said, “No Way!” I thought about running, but I was completely out of breath. I then realized that Gary had planned this all along. Gary said, “Your mother and father asked you to get a decent haircut and you ignored them. We are going to surprise them when we get home, aren’t we?” I looked at Gary and said, “No We aren’ t.”

Just then MARINE Gary came to life and said, “Son! Get your butt in that chair before I pick you up and throw you into it. You Read Me?” I knew he could throw me into that chair with one hand and wouldn’t even have to strain. I got up and slowly walked to the chair. I thought maybe I had rested enough, but I knew I wouldn’t outdistance him in a race so I thought better of that. MARINE Gary then said, “I don’t ask or tell but once.” I knew he was serious so I walked to the chair and sat down.

I had never seen this young barber before. Of course I never visited any shops except for Cal’s. As the cape was placed around my neck, the barber said, “Hi! I am Dave! How are we going to cut this hair today?” I looked up at Dave and said, “Just a light trim.” MARINE Gary shot back, “He wants a real man’s haircut. Start up here and get rid of that mustache and goatee. Both are ridiculous!” Dave took the clippers and in less than a minute, I was freed of my facial pride. I looked down on the cape and saw my long goatee there. I reached up and felt my chin and upper lip and hadn’ t felt it clean in a long time.

Dave then said, “What real man’s cut did you have in mind, son?” Of course I was about to say a trim again, but Gary said, “He wants to surprise his parents and get all of these curls cut off.” I suddenly got my voice back and said, “No! I like it just like this!” Gary stepped behind me and picked up a pair of sharp scissors and reached up and grabbed a clump of hair in the front and pulled it up and cut it off with one swift stroke. He not only cut it off, but he managed to cut it off close to my head. He dropped it in my lap and went for another clump. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Before long, Gary had removed most of the long hair on my head. I found my heart racing. Dave turned me around to face the mirror and I almost passed out when I saw the ugly cut.

Dave turned me around and said, “Now how are we going to finish this up?” I knew I had lost the battle. I said, “I don’t know what kind of a style you can make out of this!” Gary had sat down and was watching and listening. I knew what he wanted me to say. I looked up at Dave and for the first time I noticed that he was sporting the same haircut as Gary….BALD! His, like Gary’s, was shining. As I looked at his shining head, I could feel movement taking place under the cape.

Gary looked at me and said, “Curt! You’re wasting Dave’s time and we need to do some shopping before we get home and your mother will have supper ready for us in about an hour, so tell the man what to do. NOW!” I looked up at Dave and took a deep breath and said, “Shave It.” Dave smiled and said, “You know Curt, you look so much better already and you are going to be surprised how masculine you are going to look once we get you cleaned up. Trust me.” So began the clippers running all over my head. I found myself enjoying the clipper work. The first run that Dave made over the top of my head, I had a chill run down my spine and I found that my manhood was standing erect. In fact it felt like it was about to burst.

When Dave finished with the clippers, he turned me towards the mirror and let me take a look. I didn’t recognize myself. Just as I was getting used to the new me, Dave put lots of hot shaving cream all over my head. You talk about straining. I thought I was going to explode any second under the cape. I never had a feeling like that before. When I saw Dave coming at me with a new Mach 3 Turbo, I noticed that my heart began to race again. Just as soon as Dave began to slide the razor over the top of my head, I couldn’t hold it any longer. Talk about exploding. I just hoped they didn’t notice my actions and also hoped that it would show later. Of course with my baggy pants, I figured it wouldn’t. Just when I thought Dave was finished, he put some hot lather on my upper lip and chin. I had forgotten about that. It wasn’t long before he had me smooth in that area as well.

As I stepped from the chair, I looked closely in the mirror and I suddenly found myself rubbing my head. I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing for the first time. It was AWESOME! I mean truly AWESOME! I paid Dave and gave him a good tip. At that point, Gary got up and said, “Congratulations. You have just become a man! Now start acting the part. You don’t realize how great you look right now and it is going to get better.” Gary thanked Dave and we left. As we were walking, I just realized that I hadn’t looked down at all of the hair that I had lost. In fact, I was really enjoying this cut. At every opportunity, I would look at my shaved head in the store windows and liked what I saw. The head was a little pale, but I had over a week to get a little tan on it, even if it was in November.

Finally we came to a men’s store and Gary opened the door and motioned for me to go in. I asked Gary what he needed to buy here. He looked at me and said, “Not for me, but for you. Men don’t walk around looking like a slob. They dress neatly, wear a belt, and yes, wear good fitting shoes for comfort as well as style. It wasn’t long before I had several sets of walking shorts and shirts as well as several pairs of pants. I got several pairs of shoes, one for dress and one for casual wear. Oh! Yes! Several interesting but functional belts were added to the purchase. We left the store with me wearing my casual shoes, shorts and a shirt.

As we were walking along, Gary looked at me and said, “Man! How handsome you look. You are going to knock the socks off the girls at school. I might have to stay longer and help you fight off all of the girls.” I laughed and then Gary said, “What are you thinking about right now?” We stopped and I looked Gary in the eye and said, “I feel so good. I want to thank you for the push! I will always be grateful for this. I know my friends are going to talk about this look, but I can get past that. I can’t get over how wonderful I feel. I didn’t know anyone could feel this wonderful over a haircut and new cloths.”

We continued to walk and I was amazed how sensitive my head was and how much I was noticing that I hadn’t noticed before. The world had come alive for me. As we approached home, I stopped and thank Gary again. Gary said, “Curt! You sure are one handsome dude who was hiding behind all of that fuzz and those ugly duds. Just wait until your parents see you. Just watch their actions. Trust me, you are going to see real parents in action, so be prepared.”

When we got home, I wasn’t ready for what followed. Dad saw me first and he got up and came over to me and reached out his hand and shook mine. Then he did something he hasn’t done for as long as I can remember! He hugged me and said, “Son! I am so proud of you. You don’t know how proud! Thank You from the bottom of my heart. Let me look at you! You are so handsome. WOW! Just wait until your mother lays her eyes on you.”

I must say dad’s action was most unexpected and appreciated. I really felt great when he hugged me. He said almost the same thing Gary had said. I am beginning to believe it myself.

Just then dad said, “Son! Go out to the kitchen and say hi to your mother.” He had such a beautiful smile on his face when he spoke. You could tell he was really proud of what I had done.

I walked out to the kitchen and asked mother when supper would be ready. She was at the stove and never looked up but said, tell your dad and Gary that we will be eating in about 10 minutes. Just then she looked up and turned around and she dropped the spoon she was stirring a pot with. She said, “Oh! My! OH! MY! I have a young man standing before me.” She came over to me and hugged and kissed me. She kept pushing me back and looking at me and then hugging me again and again. “OH Thank you! You look FANTSTIC!” She hugged me again and then said, “You look SMASHING!” I was sort of enjoying this attention. I felt so good that not only did I feel good about what I was feeling, but also that my parents were really appreciating what I had done.

Finally mother said, “Change that to 15 minutes. Come back out here and let me look at you again. I delivered the messages and told them that I had to go back out to the kitchen. When I arrived back out to the kitchen, mother looked at me with a very broad smile on her face. She said, “Do you realize how handsome you are? How masculine you look? Oh! My!” She came and hugged me again and gave me a big kiss on the top of my head. She was the first one to rub my head beside me. It sure did feel good.

As we were eating dinner that night, all eyes were on me. I felt a little uncomfortable but thought ‘this won’t last and we will get back to normal.’ After supper, I was about to do some work on the computer when Gary popped his head in and wanted to know if I wanted to go to a movie….his treat. Of course I wouldn’t pass up going to a movie. I told him I would love to go but I had to ask my parents first. He smiled and said, “Good idea. Always ask for permission. That is what a Real Man does! He never takes anyone for granted. Good manners doesn’t make you less of a man, in fact it makes you a better man.”

When I asked the folks, they said yes! They were going to work at preparing for the big meal. I asked mother if there was anything I could do to help her in the kitchen and she said, “Yes! As a matter of fact there is. You get out of here right now. I can’t get anything done with you around looking so handsome. Before you go out, go in and look at your eyes in the mirror - look closely.” I did just what she said. I did notice that my eyes did appear much larger and bluer.

The movie was great and I saw several of my classmates there. They couldn’t get over my new look. Several of my male friends came up to me and said, “WOW! I hate how good you look.” I laughed and loved to hear that.

The following morning, I was brushing my teeth when Gary popped his head in and said, “Don’t forget to shave that head before you shower and put some of this on your noggin. He handed me two small bottles and said to use the one with the red cap first and then wipe the excess off and then the one with the blue cap. I hadn’t thought about shaving my head. I reached up and felt it. It felt like fine sandpaper. I washed my face and head and put shaving cream on and began shaving. I found that I enjoyed shaving and that after a little, I got the ‘hang’ of shaving my head and in no time I was finished. When I got out of the shower, I put on the thin liquid and rubbed it around. It made the shine really stand out. After a short time of massaging the head, I wiped off the excess and then applied the other liquid. It was slick and made the head shine even better. In no time I was dressed and found that the second liquid I put on my head was dry. Talk about shine. When I went down for breakfast, the folks couldn’t get over how my head shone. They both hugged me and said that they just couldn’t get over how handsome I looked. If they kept that up, I might get a complex. Ha!! Ha!!

I didn’t know it at the time, but Gary and dad had been talking while I was showering, etc. Gary wanted to know if I was ready for some jogging. He told me I had better work on my stamina when it comes to jogging. He said I looked really great in the muscle department - of course playing football and all of the exercises we had to do for that helped. I loved exercising so it wasn’t a problem. Gary was amazed that I had little stamina when it came to running. He thought I should be better at it than I was. I told him I skipped most of the running that we were asked to do during the summer and in practice.

After our workout, we showered again and then went shopping. I wanted to get some more duds - I had already tossed my entire wardrobe into the trash. I was beginning again. As we were coming out of a men’s store, I poked Gary and said, “Look at that Bald Head! Does it ever shine!” Gary said something that surprised me. He said, “Your dad really looks cool, doesn’t he?” I said yes but didn’t follow his train of thought. I told Gary we had to stop by the grocery store and pick up some things for mother. When we got home, I almost dropped the bags of groceries. There sat dad watching a football game on TV with a shiny head. Yes he had gone to Dave and had his head shaved. He looked up at Gary and me and said, “How do you like it? You too look so great, I decided to join the fun.” Dad had MPB so this change was really a plus for him. I took the groceries out to mother and she asked me if I had seen her sexy man in the living room? I asked her if she liked it and she was bubbling - “Oh! My! It’s like being married all over again.” Then she giggled.

To say that the other relatives where shocked when they saw the three of us is putting it mildly. We sure did enjoy the Thanksgiving Dinner with all of the guests. The day after Thanksgiving Gary and I were out jogging and when we stopped to rest and Gary again asked me how my grades were. I told him and he looked at me and once again MARINE Gary came to life. He told me in on uncertain terms, that the next report card had better be all A’s or he would be back and put a ‘hurt’ on me like none other. I laughed and said, “You won’t have to worry. For some reason I have suddenly looked at my school work differently.” I sure did enjoy having Gary with us for the time I was out of school.

Gary left us the day before I went back to school. Word had gotten around of my transformation. Everyone I knew made sure to look me up. I really liked the way I looked and felt. Can you believe it, but both my parents give me a big hug each morning and thank me. I can’t explain how that makes me feel. My grades did come up to A’s and remained there. I talked several times with Gary and of course I was happy to report on my studies.

Many years later, I still remember that Thanksgiving! I will forever be in debt to my cousin, the MARINE! I finished college and have a great job. Yes! I am still bald. I admit that I had slipped several times, thinking I would like to go back to having hair, but that didn’t last long. BALD IS THE WAY TO GO! As for my shaggy friends! Some of them are in the same mindset as they were in high school. Needless to say, they are just existing and that is all. The others finally came around and are doing quite well. I finally made up my mind to have Gary stop by sometime and have a “TALK” with those guys. They need a fire lit under them. Gary is just the person to do it. I can’t wait to see the change in them after Gary ’s little “TALK!” I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t do something similar as to what he did to me. Dave has the scissors and razor waiting.