Maintaining a good relationship with your editor is important.
So it is my policy to stop by The Graham Star office every week and discuss my column ideas with Kevin Hensley.
Last week, I suggested that my column could be about roots. Kevin gave me that condescending look of someone less than half my age and said, “Do you mean that 1970’s television series?”
I was amazed he knew about the eight-part mini-series based on Alex Haley’s book. The show ran during the month of January 1977 and was wildly popular. My emphatic response was that the show was not the roots I was talking about.
So I asked office manager Hope Riddle what she thought roots meant. Being a smart young lady she responded, “It’s where you come from.”
We all know that is an important topic in these parts. If your Mamaw and Papaw weren’t from Graham County, you’re not a real Graham Countian. Good try, but once again, this was not the roots about which this column would be written.
Given the limited time available to the busy Graham Star staff, it was time to give up the true meaning of roots. We are talking about those nasty, grey roots that you can’t get colored, because the Coronavirus has the personal care industry shut down to assist in the effort to flatten the curve and tame the beast.
I knew from the smiles on the female staff’s faces that this was an important topic.
You might think, “What does a guy know about roots?” Here are a few things that my wife Beth let me know on the subject, and some of my own observations:
* When a man goes grey, he becomes distinguished. When a woman gets roots, she worries about looking old. Very unfair, but whoever said the world was fair?
* A salon is more than a beauty parlor. It is a place of relaxation. A place for feeling good about how you look and a place to discuss suggestions for various products that are healthy and helpful. Frankly, it is a place many people need right now.
* A salon is also a business that provides a living for its owner and employees. Without customers, it cannot survive.
* Beth and I go to the same salon, but at very different times of the day. Without giving a plug by name, it is an innovative place where you can go to the bank on getting a good outcome. I enjoy the conversation about current events, families, who is getting married, relatives that are sick or who passed recently, happenings at the high school, vacations and much more. Some might think this is gossip, but, they would be wrong. This is positive human face to face interaction without malicious intent. The intent is what turns conversation into gossip.
Back to roots. It is time to allow the personal care salons to re-open with very tight sanitary procedures, social distancing requirements and monitoring. I am starting to look a bit shaggy. My eyebrows could be windshield wipers for my glasses.
As relates to roots, whether or not to do something about that is a personal decision and a place where this columnist fears to tread.
Roger Carlton is a columnist for The Graham Star.