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Old 08-24-2021, 01:51 PM   #1
Teach
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,032
"I Hear Ya."

“I Hear Ya.”

“I’m breathin’,” he said, “but I have lots of problems.”

Once every few weeks, give or take a day or two, for over twenty years, I would drive to the local strip-mall to a place called “John’s Barber Shop” to get my hair cut. Just the other day, after many, many months, I went to John’s shop. I must admit that as I walked in, I looked like one of those “hippies,” the long-haired members of the 1960’s counter-culture. Below, I’m going to reconstruct our conversation:

Walt: “John, long time, no see. How ya doin’?”

John: “Cosi cosi. I’m breathin’, but I got lots of problems makin’ ends meet. For many months I had to shut down my shop."

Walt: “I hear ya.”

John: If only we had taken this coronavirus more seriously when we first learned about it. We coulda nipped it in the bud. Instead I wasn’t bringin’ in any income. I had saved a few bucks in the bank for a rainy day, but that wasn’t nearly enough to tide my over until I could reopen."

Walt: “I hear ya. I know where you’re coming from. I’m retired so I receive a pension check, but my wife and I both have pre-existing conditions. She’s had lung and ovarian cancer. I have type 2 diabetes. We wouldn’t last a week if we caught the coronavirus.”

John: “You know I could try to re-coop by raising my prices, but if I do, it’s possible that many of my regular customers who have suffered as we have through this Covid-19 pandemic will likely go elsewhere for a haircut. There are five barber shops in this area within a radius of about one mile. You may remember, years ago, how I’d hire a barber on Saturdays to handle the overflow. I can’t do that. In fact I don’t need to do that. Everybody’s scrimpin’ and savin’. Many of my customers haven’t worked in months. If they didn’t receive unemployment benefits…"

Walt: “I know what you mean. My grandson lost his job at a restaurant because all they can do is either take-out or delivery."

John: “And my medical costs keep goin’ up. It’s just Gina (John’s wife) and me, yet my insurance premiums keep rising. Things that were covered before ain’t being covered now. The cost of our meds have risen and so have our co-pays."

Walt: “I know where you’re coming from. Every time I get a COLA, they raise my Medicare premiums.”

John: “You may remember how I’d put a sign up in the window – Closed: Two Weeks Vacation. How Gina and I would go down to the Cape, and then spend a few days on Martha’s Vineyard. We’d plan it so we could meet up with our friends. We can’t do that now, not with the new Delta variant lurking around every corner. I’m afraid, even with the vaccines, that would could see an increase in the number of cases.”

Walt: “Yeah, my wife and I would spend a week or two every summer visiting family in Syracuse and Rochester. We can’t take that chance.”

John: “As far as getting interest from our bank, the rates are so low it’s hardly worth it. I’m half-thinkin’ of putting money under the mattress just like my grandparents did when banks failed during The Great Depression. In fact, when I put money in the bank, I’m losing money if you take into account inflation. I hear the government says that inflation is under control. Tell that to my plumber, electrician, and auto mechanic. I prayer my car doesn’t break down. All it takes is just one big “nut” to drive a person over the edge. And, to add to my worries, I’m starting to max out my credit cards. It’s getting to be like “a juice loan.”

Walt: “My wife and I are cutting corners wherever we can. Some things have become mandatory. We used to go out to our favorite seafood restaurant every week. It was something we looked forward to. Some clam chowder, a baked-stuffed lobster, a couple drinks. Oh, I understand why they’ve shut down restaurants and bars. It’s for the public good. As difficult as it may seem, we must all do our part to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But if we had acted sooner…"

John: “Speakin’ of money, I’ve thought about investing in the stock market, but I don’t have that kind of money to put at risk. Maybe if I were one of those millionaires… Just my luck, I put money in the market and there’s another crash and my stock tanks, and I’m left ‘holdin’ the bag’.”

Walt: I don’t have the time-horizon to be doin’ much investing in the market. If I were twenty years younger… The market is a ‘rich man’s’ game. They got the discretionary income. They can talk all they want about how well the market is doing. That the market has fully recovered from its Covid lows. That doesn’t benefit me. In a sense, I’m one of the ‘bottom fish.’”

John: “Did I ever tell you about my Cousin Sal? Cousin Sal was the first child born into my mother’s side of the family, the Salerno’s. In fact, my mother was the “baby” of the family. Just the other day, I was looking through an old family album, you know the ones where the pictures are held in by black corners. Well, I see this picture of Cousin Sal with this fur coat on. He looks like a young prince. The picture was dated 1928. I turn a few pages in the album and I see another picture of my Cousin Sal, but no fur coat. In fact, his clothing looks shabby. Years earlier, my mother told me that her brother, Dom, my uncle, had invested heavily in the stock market. He was, what they called “borrowing (buying) on margin.” In other words, he was putting down the bare minimum for a stock (he’s getting the rest of the needed money for the purchase of the stock from brokers’ loans) with the idea that his stock would go up in what was then a raging Bull Market. As you may know, the market turned in the late-summer, 1929. Uncle Dom started getting margin calls. In the end, my Uncle Dom lost just about everything. It was one of those “riches-to-rags” stories. Thankfully for him, other members of our family helped him out. As for Cousin Sal, he graduated high school and then worked for a government agency called the WPA. I recall my mother telling me that he worked on the construction of the New York World’s Fair on Long Island. When war broke out, he enlisted. He fought in the South Pacific. After the war, he ended up going to college on the G.I. Bill. After graduation, he became a high school “shop” teacher.”

Walt: "That was interesting. My grandfather had a similar experience. When the Great Depression broke out, my grandfather lost his job at a mill. He ended up working on roads and bridges in the Syracuse area. During the winter, it was so cold that my grandfather got frostbite. My mother told me that her mother, my grandmother, knitted him some earmuffs."

John: “Unless things pick up, my days of cutting hair may be numbered. I feel we’ve fallen into a two-tier economic system, a widening gap between the very rich and ever-increasing poor. Where this all leads…? I’m no economist, but I believe some proud people may end up on welfare rolls. Who knows, by then, there might not be such a thing as welfare. I worry about my Social Security. If the government cuts payroll taxes…”

Walt: “Yeah, the way things are currently going, I don’t know if anything is truly safe.”

With that, John had finished my haircut. For years, as I was about to leave, we used to shake hands (We can’t do that now). I paid for my haircut and added my usual tip. Yet as I left “John’s Barber Shop,” I felt sad. I felt sad for John and people just like him. I wondered how many decent people, just like John, were experiencing similar problems throughout our great country. Proud men and women who, through no fault of their own, have fallen on hard times. Help must be made available. Sometimes people need “safety nets.” Those “safety nets” should remain strong. If they exist, they should remain in place. As we used to say when I was teaching, “We didn’t want anyone “slipping through the cracks.” These are not normal times. In fact, I believe we’ve entered “a new normal.” As I headed for my car, I thought, “I hear you, John. I hope our government does too. No person should be neglected when they are in need; they should never be ignored. The ‘blame-game’ is not going to solve it. We’re better than that!”
__________________
Walt (Teach)

"Walt, make a 'mental bet' and lose your mind." R.N.S.

"The important thing is what I think of myself."
"David and Lisa" (1962)












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