The Beauty College

I don't know what year it was, but I was in elementary school. My mom had been going to Beauty College in OKC to become a licensed hairdresser. Next thing I know, mom and dad bought the Beauty College. The college seemed huge to me and there were several rooms to it. Not long after that, they bought a Beauty Salon too. It was a mile or so from the College.
I quickly learned the skills of janitorial work. Both the College and the Salon were swept, mopped, and then waxed each week. I never saw so much hair. It was everywhere. I tried my best to get all the hair I could while sweeping and mopping, but was always amazed at how much showed up when I started waxing. I was a little guy on that mop and sometimes I thought the mop was working me more than I was working the mop.
We refilled all the coke boxes. This was the day of glass bottles and wooden crates holding the bottles. We wood take a couple of crates home for after school drinks and such. I thought that was kind of special and friends did to when they would stay with me.
Sometimes we would refill bottles of shampoo, conditioner and others.
On the way home from the Beauty College we would stop and do the same tasks at the Salon. It was so much smaller that it didn't take long. It was a snap.
These weekly tasks came in addition to yard mowing and regular house chores. It was kind of neat though. While I didn't really look forward to being on the end of that mop handle, I enjoyed hangin out with dad. No cell phones yet. Just me and him for most of one evening a week.
Dad taught me by example on how to work. He was one of the hardest workers I ever knew and I know he got it from his dad, my granddad. Since leaving home I have always realized in the middle of projects around the house or on the farm we had for a few years, that hard work would get it done and thoughts of dad would always come to me as I poured myself into working.