About twenty years ago, I settled on a barbershop near work. The barbers then working there were mature, one having served in the U.S. Army in WW II. He must have been born no later than 1928, therefore he must have been seventy-four or seventy-five when I first met him. The other had graduated from high school the year I was born, so he was about ten years younger.
The barbershop has since changed hands. The current owner told me today that she will be seventy-nine in December. I remarked that the veteran must have worked at least until he was eighty. She said that in fact he worked until he was ninety--though I don't think this can have been full time. She said also that a lot of barbers work until quite old. Her explanation was that many of them have few friends to spend time with upon retirement. Perhaps so. It seems the sort of work that would be hard on one though, requiring one to stand while working, yet not yielding the benefit of steady walking.
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