The Financial Illiterate

 

most people don't think of a trip to the barber as a high point, but then again most people don't get their hair cut at Miller's Barber Shop.

Roy Miller started giving us "buzz cuts" when we were five years old. We've outgrown that style, but remained true to Roy. In addition to being intelligent and witty, he has the one quality that most endears a man to Tom and to me— he's a die-hard Tigers fan!

Like most barbers, Roy has a few Saturday regulars who are there only to pass the time. Two of the three, Jimmy and Clyde, don't have any hair left to cut. Clyde in particular gets a real kick out of our monthly visits. He is a big baseball fan, too—if you can be and cheer for the Indians.

During the warm-weather months, the next item on Tom's and my itinerary is golfing. Both of us love the game, but despite being reasonably good athletes who have played golf for several years, neither of us excels at the sport. I have a fifteen handicap, while Tom's fluctuates between sixteen and twenty-two, depending on whether he's trying to impress someone or entering a tournament.

Saturday nights in Port Huron hold something different each month. Sometimes we assemble for a house party or a ball game. But most frequently, ten or fifteen of us descend on Chicken in the Rough, a popular and unique local bar with great chicken and even better beer.

Sundays, Sue and I go to church and out to brunch with her parents, whom I enjoy immensely. The Wash-burns have done quite well for themselves, owning and operating an industrial cleaning company. Like so many others, the company fell upon tough times in the early nineties. Unlike so many others, owing in large part to my in-laws' work ethic and its debt-free balance sheet, it weathered the storm.