Boldly Unbroken

As a young girl, somewhere around seven years old I had the mumps. I had never heard of them until then.  In the very back, rear facing seat of my mom and dad‘s station wagon, we were headed to my Mimi‘s house in Camden, Alabama.  We stopped at a small gas station on Highway 41 on the way.  Dad would always let us come in and get a five cent cookie or a handful of penny candy for the road. This particular day me and all my sisters got a little brown bag of penny bubblegum. It came in three flavors… bubblegum, sour apple and grape. I remember chewing grape bubble gum and adding another piece until my mouth could not possibly put any more in it! It was about a 45 minute drive to Mimi’s house and by the time we got there my jaws were hurting.  Later in the day I began running a fever and my face on both sides were swollen. I looked like a chipmunk with overstuffed jaws.  As it turned out, I had the mumps. Then another sister had it… and another until all of us except my brother was sick w

    As a hairdresser in 2003, I began having request from male clients for “topless“ haircuts. This ranged in a time span of several months. I answered a telephone call one day from a guy that was my business partner’s client.    He wanted to book a haircut appointment but when I called her to the phone he insisted that he book his appointment with me. After discussing this a brief minute or so, I penciled him in. The day of his appointment I sat him in my chair and I asked him what I could do for him. He said he wanted my “special“ haircut. I was confused as to what this “special“ haircut was so I gave him one of my hairstylist books to browse through and choose what hairstyle he wanted. As I turned around to give him a minute to look at the book, he grabbed my hand and said, a “SPECIAL“ (with emphasis), haircut.  I stood behind the chair and looked him in the face through the mirror and explained to him that I was unsure of what he was talking about. As my business partner walked out