A Shave and a Haircut and Grandpa's retirement

Well, I finally saw Sean in person when I went to Grand Forks on Tuesday. I had gone to Grand Forks for my Father’s retirement reception and dinner, which were held on Wednesday. Clara had come up with me and we both stopped at Sean’s dorm room late Tuesday afternoon. The dorm room wasn’t as bad as I had expected with two young men in such a small space. No funky smell and only a few food containers lined up against the wall (for reuse, I guess). However, Sean hadn’t had a haircut since he had left home; his thick, unruly hair, along with his small, not-so-neatly clipped chin beard gave him a decidedly unkept look. I suggested we walk over to the Student Union and visit the on-campus Great Clips hair cutting salon. Sean balked at that suggestion, as he didn’t like the itchy feeling of snippets of cut hair around his neck. He relented when I said, “Here’s the deal. You do it now, I pay for it. Later, you pay.” Unfortunately (or as it ended up, fortunately), Great Clips was booked, but the barber shop down the hall had time for a walk-in. Sean got a great haircut, but was startled at the end when the female barber, Marie, started lathering up the sides of his face and neck for a shave—a new experience for him. Sean’s appearance was much improved after the haircut. I told him that a few people would probably comment on his haircut the next day in class. He was skeptical that people would even notice, but when I spoke with him on Wednesday, he said quite a few people had mentioned it to him, which actually made him feel good—he wasn’t invisible!
The next day, Wednesday, Sean met us at the reception and even spoke a few words regarding his grandpa (something his uncles were even too self-conscious to do). His “high praise” was regarding his Grandpa’s portion of the JFK conference he had attended recently. Sean said that unlike some of the talks on subjects like homosexuality, which seemed to have no relevance, his grandpa’s talk was “the most relevant.”