A moment from my book

Gail was another matter; she was overly well endowed and always wore tops that almost covered something. She would bounce in and make sure she visited every one of the guys. Her skirts were far too short and no one taught her how to sit like a lady. You could hear and feel the stampede, as the guys came running up the stairs from the lunchroom in the basement. No one wanted to miss the free show. Gail was the newest addition to the ‘men’s only club’ down town and I guess she was advertising. It was a joke around the shop, that at least the guys here didn’t have to pay admission to the show, the show came to them. She was Salvador’s customer and refused to have a shampoo cape put over her, she settled for just a towel around her neck. We could see how hard this was on him, especially when he had to brush the fresh cut hair off her bosoms. This was always the longest drawn out hairdo he ever did. Flirtatiously she said, “It has to be perfect Salvador.”
We used a crochet hook for pulling the hair through the little itty-bitty holes in the streaking cap; it was as if we were digging for brains. Alternatively, as one lady put it like we were trying to scratch her nose from the inside. If not done correctly it could feel like torture.
We had Baby Jane (an older lady who had emotional problems) who came in once a month to have her hair tinted as black as we could make it. She would then go home and style it herself. She overly applied her makeup and dressed up to look exactly like Betty Davis in ‘Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.’ Her sister would come into the shop weekly and she would tell us the story about how her sister became so eccentric. When she was younger, she was in a skating accident and was in a coma for almost 6 months. She recovered but somehow became obsessed with the character Baby Jane. Everyone who knew her loved her and understood. One day at the mall, I watched as she entertained some enthusiastic onlookers and played the part as if she were living it. I too then understood what her disability was doing to her. Being entertaining made her happy.