Hair Find. Hair Loss. Balance in the Universe? Hey, I'm a Believer!

What a find! After a lengthy search, I located an 8-Track Stereo Cassette Player to mount in Kaspar, my 1970 VW Wesyfalia (campervan). The 50 Year old player was advertized as new, but old, in its original box. So, I took a chance on it. Of course, the next challenge ahead of me was to find a few 40+ yeao old 8-track tape cartridges that might be worth a damn. I ordered eight candidates off the Internet. Four proved fully operational, while,the other four were in a variety of disrepair. I was soon the proud owner of a nostalgic piece of my own history. In the 70's, just out of my teens, I lived for three years in Garapinillos, a pueblo about 20 km outside of Zaragoza, Spain. I toured coast to coast, and Pyrenees Mountains to the southern tip of Spain in my first car, a 1971 FIAT 124 Sport Spyder, which I purchased new in Zaragoza. At the time, back in the day, 8-tracks were the rage!

Gosh, those were the days!

Fifty years later, a long-haired, retired college professor and vintage VW campervan owner, I set out to find the same tapes I remembered listening to back then, while blazing across the Spanish countryside with the canvas top down, hair blowing wildly in the wind. I managed to score the following music from those days: The Best of The Band, The Guess Who*, Best of Bread*, Joe Cocker, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young*, and Jesus Christ Super Star.* Asterisks denotes the actually playable ones.

Totally unexpected, after having lived here for five years now, happened to find a vintage record store well-hidden just off downtown Venice, Florida. I asked the sales rep if they sold 8-track cartridges. She responded as if I was speaking a foreign language (and not Spanish). Further discussion sparked her in her memory, and she began scavanging around the storage cabinets beneath the record displays. Determined, she eventually produced a small cardboard box. Placing it on a table neaarby, she asked if what I was looking for was in the box. Surprise! Inside the box were five 8-track cartgridges: a Tammy Wynette, a few nondescript gospel groups, and...BINGO... a nearly like new cartridge of HAIR - the Rock Musical!

That serendipitous moment of personal happiness only cost me $4.00!

With all the recent work I had been involved with on Kaspar, I found that my, beyond shoulder length, hippie hair was becoming an annoyance. Besides geting in my eyes, it was constantly catching, snagging, and pulling. So, one morning before this Thanksgiving, I went full Edward Scissor Hands on my head! Long, "platinum blond" strands of hair began flying all over the place. When it was over, I stood before the mirror and stared at the strange man in the mirror. The shock and disbelief were heavily outweighed by a sense of relief. I had worn my hair long since 2008. What the hell, it was time for a change, at least for a season. I lopped it off with the expectation of it growing back thicker and healthier.

Actually, I'll be most thankfull if it grows back at all!