You are listening to An Ounce, Season 6, Episode 7, How Did We Ever Survive: A Tale of Surgeons, Barbers, and Gossips
As you surf around the web, you will probably go to some of your favorite sites. Familiar places with information that interests you. You are probably going to spend some of your time on social media, seeing untruths and exaggerations about how amazing someone else life is, and maybe posting a few pics that show others how amazing your life is (even if it isn’t).
You are likely to respond to a few texts, ignore a few others, send a meme or two, and plan some get-together.
It’s possible you will spend time streaming a few videos – or more. Maybe something about true crime, fashion, meditation, current events, or some political propaganda or conspiracy theory– and if you are young, a few of those videos you will be watching are someone else’s screen, while they play a video game.
Today you’re not terribly likely to have many real conversations with real people – you know, interactions that are not on face time or zoom, but analog conversations - where the other person is in the same room as you are. Those conversations – especially meaningful ones - where you connect with someone besides yourself in a real way – not through text shorthand or the digital mask of virtual (as in not quite real) communication.
Face to Face
Can you imagine a time when none of that was possible? How did we survive?
There was a time when the only option for face 2 face communication and gathering was in the real world. That was the reality of the time – there was no other option.
In the town where I grew up, that gathering place was the Post Office - in Ferron, Utah. It was the perfect spot. Folks came to get their mail, do a little shopping, to fill a gas tank, and to get involved in conversation. And no-body had a phone in their pocket back then. In fact, the phones we did have were attached to a wall in your house - by a wire. And you had to share the line with about 3 or 5 other households, all tapped into the same wire – so one learned to never divulge a secret over the phone.
Though Ferron (at the time) was almost 100% non-drinking Mormons, there was a small bar a few doors away from the post office, on the other side of the butcher shop, where some would slip away for a wee drop – or more. The old guys that gathered at the post office were affectionately referred to the “spit and whittle” gang by my dad. They gathered outside in front of the post office, sometimes chewing tobacco, talking, whittling sticks, and occasionally spitting tobacco juice on the ground with the subtle accuracy of a marine sniper. Kind and good-natured, they always had a story to tell about what was happening around town – which was useful because the place was too small for its own newspaper. You either got your news from the spit and whittle gang, or at church during Sunday School.
The only way the news of the world got in was over a crackly AM radio, or one of the 3 live TV stations - which had world news at 6 PM and regional news at 6:30. There might be another report at 10 PM – but after that the stations went off the air. And that was about it – So a gathering place was really important.
Barber Shops, Conversation, and Entertainment
Back before the virtual world, other societies had their gathering spots as well. Sometimes a pub, a dinner, or even a gas station would be ‘that‘ place.
One of the most common was in a Barber shop – if the place was big enough to have one – and as I recall, Ferron was not big enough to have one that was centrally located and open all day.
But the barber shop was an anchor point from way back – like as far back as 300 BC in the Greek culture. It was a place to gather, share stories, and maybe even get your hair cut – or a shave.
But through history there has been more going on at the Barber shop than a comfortable chair and conversation, and in more recent times good TV and a potentially air-conditioned space. The Barber shop was a place of entertainment – and we're not just talking the barber shop quartet. We’re talking something much more dramatic.
See, through time the barber shop was the place where there was always someone with some high quality and sharp instruments and good steady hands.
At the barber shop, you could be a spectator to a tooth extraction –
Minor surgeries –
And if you were really lucky, maybe even an amputation!
There wasn’t much else going on, so yes – this kind of stuff drew a crowd of onlookers.
No kidding – if things had gone just a bit differently it would be your barber doing your appendectomy, removing your tonsils, heck maybe some open heart or a little cosmetic surgery!
There is a reason why the red and white barber pole is the ubiquitous symbol it is – it represents rinsed but well stained bloody rags hung in the wind, on a pole, to dry.
Absurd Past: Irrational Future
Events and circumstances turn in strange ways. A few years back it took a little while to move information – today we have more than we could ever take in, in our pockets.
Yesterday, the barber was performing surgery – the doctor just prescribed potions and remedies. Today things are very different.
Most historians will admit that most history is lost to time – we just don’t know what really happened. And even when someone has tried to document it - there is so much missing.
For example – the assassination of John F. Kennedy was witnessed by thousands – and because of the films – a whole world has seen it. But anyone who takes a deep dive into the event will find there is so much we just don’t know – and probably never will.
So, here’s the Ounce –
So, understanding that history holds such unrevealed Surprises – you can bet our future will play out in unimagined ways too. And, as it does, people are going to gather, in one way or another, to talk about it, and maybe gossip a little – if the story is good.
The future marches on to where Fate and God direct it – The Proof - you have a ‘smartphone’ in your pocket, and your barber is not your surgeon.
And, that’s it. An Ounce submitted for your consideration.