Hi everyone,
"Pierre Haircut"
As we set out to Pierre, about 50 miles away, we waved to our Native American security guard at the entrance of Crow Creek reservation. His job is to check for unwanted visitors and to stop people bringing drugs etc into the campus. After an hour of travelling along an open highway of rolling grassy hill and plains we reached Pierre. First job to do - get a haircut. We step inside the homely barber shop with lots of hair on the floor and military pictures on the wall and I await my turn. The owner of the shop has a son in Iraq at the moment and has 38 years barbering experience. He is actually an inspector of barbers in the State. He said - "how would you like it - short??" Well, I'd just watched the last cut and there wasn't much left on the last guy, so I said "Normal". Well, I now have a 'mid west haircut' and I'm not going to have any trouble with wind blowing my hair again for a couple of months. I wondered if I had said 'short' whether that means drawing blood. I parted with $10 and we were on our way to lunch with Kate's nephew and niece.
We spend a good day in Pierre doing shopping and opening up a bank account etc and then headed for home. When we reached the Crow Creek checkpoint, I rolled down the window to the smiling Native American security guard and said: "How ya going, .... hey, check out my haircut, I've just been scalped!" I noticed that Kate jerked herself bolt upright in her seat and seemed to gulp audibly. As I happily drove off, Kate said: "Do you know what you just said and to whom you said it?" I said: "Oh........my........God......" Was he still smiling??? Kate reckons she's made some 'phopas' in her timetime but this one takes the cake. "Yes, ... fortunately, he was still smiling - a forgiving smile, I think", Kate replied. Imagine saying that 200 years ago to a Dakota warrior - I might not have got off so lightly.
Pierre city websites:
· The grand capitol building in the heart of town http://www.sd-heartland.worldweb.com/PierreSD/PhotoGallery/LandmarksandHistoricSites/10-5348.html
· Pierre homepage http://ci.pierre.sd.us/#Main%20Index
· Pierre tourism http://www.sd-heartland.worldweb.com/PierreSD/
· Pierre population and stats http://pierre.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm
· Pierre aquarium http://www.sd-discovery.com/
Regards,
BK
