N**

We missed it all.

Parade was over, Midshipmen Class of 2012 had tossed their hats and kids already collected them for the 100^th time in the Academy’s history. Old Tamanend (aka Tecumseh, a figurehead from the USS Delaware) in his new attire and a couple of announcements around the city reminded of the festivities.

Tradition's retrospective:

by Michael Kane	by Stuart Weibel
property of USNAparents.com	by Diane Knittle

 

While newly commissioned officers pack the bus to their duty stations

the cadets are either on-duty

or enjoying their free time:

Our feet customary directed us to Fordham to find that, while Ram’s Head ** Tavern is where we had left it last year, Annapolis heritage is now brewed in Delaware, albeit using same centuries proven recipes.

(Delaware also hosts Dogfish Head; till 1995 breweries in DE were still illegal. Noticed the role of the First State in our "story" ?)

  Chilled and reloaded we strolled down the Main Street.
We'd like to show you the place we like, the way it showed itself to us.

---------------------------     ( to be continued)     --------------------------------

** Naming a tavern Ram's Head in Annapolis might not be as purely coincidental: Bill the Goat is the USNA Mascot for already more than a century and now at its XXXIII generation

by Lieutenant Junior Grade John Gay

 

Stop on Red

- Haircut or shave?
- [laconically] Yeah.
- I beg your pardon, isn't your name Flugg?
- Yeah.
- I thought so. I didn't recognize your face when you first came in.
- [deadpan] No, it's all healed up since I was in here last.

                        

                        (“The Barber Shop”, 1933)

 

   Back in days visiting a barber shop regularly was a habit.

Men stopped in for a hot shave or a haircut, in ancient days - for dentistry or surgery. 

   Actually, it was kind of a hangout: “a barber gives you a quick shave if you don't have time to listen to a haircut”. Some featured bars, like Boston’s famous Joe & Nemo, allowing them to keep up with saloons.

Paul Sample, Barber Shop, 1934. Cleveland Museum of Art collection

    Since long hair became unisex, getting hair done every couple of weeks became optional. Modern times shaved beards from men's faces with the safety razors. Overnight stubble quickly goes away with a help of an electric shaver, usually tucked into the car's glove compartment. Long beards and free time go hand in hand. Man drinks, eats, shaves in the car, sometimes fearless of road signals.

Give it a break - stop on red, stop shaving in the car, stop in for a shave.

 

Barber shops are still around, but, we bet, not like the one we “discovered” around New Year Eve in Indianapolis. We literally stopped on “Red’s”.

Red's Window

Shop's Door

Gentleman's Accessories

Window Poster

Step inside, make yourself comfortable in one of original Koken's and risk it all for a hot lather shave.

Barber at Work

Koken Barber Chair

Let your shoes speak for you:

Shoe Shine Bench & Stands

He works here, he is from Savannah and he knows it all. All you have to do is to ask ... just ask about the place and just listen to a shoe shine:

Interested ? Visit Red's in the Red's album or at their site.