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Birdie Calvert, her daughter and Birdie’s mother file into the nursing home to visit Birdie’s father. He smiles politely, but his granddaughter complains that it seems like he doesn’t even recognize them. “Oh, your grandpa’s fine,” says Birdie’s mother as she looks into his face, smoothes his hair, and hugs him. “He just has a touch of Old Timer’s.” Birdie corrects her. “It’s Alzheimer’s, Mama.” Birdie’s mother smiles softly at the old man and whispers, “I know what I said.”
--From the 1998 movie Hope Floats
Three streets triangulate the center of downtown Berea, Ohio, thus the distinction of having a Town Triangle instead of a Town Square. Locals are proud of that unique trivia. In my youth, Schneider’s Drug Store, Whitey’s Army/Navy Store, Art’s Men’s Shop and other quaint shops adorned the Triangle, and on the “away” side, next to the hardware store and across the street from the pool hall sat Pappy and Uncle Mike’s Barber Shop. Pappy (my mom’s dad) learned the trade of barbering around age 40 when the country no longer needed men to haul chunks of ice or coal into a house; it was probably best because his shoulders were wearing out anyway.
A Regular Routine
On Saturday mornings, Pappy would take me to the shop, where he’d re-shave my “Princeton” haircut and I’d read comic books, sneak peeks at the girlie magazines he kept in the back, and just hang around until Dad whistled across the street for me to join him at the pool room.