Grandma Lu And Her Wedding Day Long Ago

Grandma Lu was pleasantly surprised to see her friends Grandma B and Marlee at the cafe she had stopped at this morning. It seemed that they always had so many fun things to talk about. Today Grandma B was telling Marlee about how beauty shops had started in the "Olden Days" as Marlee called them. Of course, Grandma Lu couldn't stand not telling her beauty shop stories. "Boy, I have so many stories to tell you girls about beauty shops. I have a good
story to tell you about the day I married my children's daddy."
"Actually it was all Wally's fault. He moved the day of the wedding up a day. Well, I asked my beauty operator if she could get me in a day early. She had said she was completely booked up."
 She said, "I'm so sorry, but I just don't have any time for another appointment. This is a Friday and I'm afraid most of the shops will be full. Why don't you call the Beauty School here in town. They can probably get you worked in."
"Well, I had never been to a beauty school, so I thought I would give it a try. Now, Marlee, you have to understand we go to school to learn how to do something that we have never done before. Just like when we go to school to learn how to read. We don't know how until the teacher teaches us how. Well, that's what they do in a beauty school. They teach older boys and girls how to fix hair. They teach them all kinds of things, but on this particular day all I wanted was to get my hair fixed so I would look pretty for my new husband. They said that they had room and to come on in. They would fix my hair for me. So I did just that. Well, the girl was very nice, but very slow. The reason for that is that her teacher kept coming by to tell her how to do things. She checked to see if she had shampooed my hair right, then she checked to see if she was rolling my hair the right way in rollers in those days. The rollers they used in my hair were not big ones, but they were called brush ones.They were sharp and hurt my head. They were held in place with what they called picks. The rollers were all different sizes. That was part of the teaching process. The new students had to learn what kind of roller and what size to use where. I still have my mother's old hair rollers. I just can't seem to throw them away."
"The girl finally finished rolling my hair and showed me where to sit under the hair dryer. In those days there were rows and rows of hairdryer chairs. They had foot rests that were adjusted by a hand lever on the side of the chair. The chairs were pushed up so close together I could hardly get my hand down there. My head was under the dryer so I couldn't see what I was doing. Also in those days the customers were given coffee, and a magazine. Customers usually, often smoked cigarettes in those days. The hair dryer chairs had built in ashtrays in the arms. So actually the ladies were so busy drying, adjusting their chairs, reading magazines and smoking, that the time went by really fast. Before they knew it, it was time to get their hair styled. Except in my case. The lady next to me was a rather large lady. Actually too large for the chair she was sitting in. She had a cup of coffee in one hand and a magazine in the other hand. All of a sudden Bam! Her head went crashing into the hair dryer, her coffee spilled all over the place and the magazine went flying to the floor. I had accidentally pulled her lever to her footrest and made her legs go down really fast. I was so embarrassed. I apologized and apologized, but it seemed the more I said I was sorry the angrier she became so I just sat there really sad on my wedding day."
Marlee started to giggle, "Oh, Grandma Lu I sure would have liked to have seen that."
Grandma B was laughing so hard she spewed her coffee on the table. She said, "Oh, Grandma Lu have you always had such an exciting life?"
Little did Grandma B know that this story was just the beginning of the Beauty Shop saga in her life. She had not even finished her story of the Beauty School either!