HERB BENHAM: Retirement just didn't cut it for Big Ed
| Monday, Feb 08 2010 03:52 PM
Last Updated Monday, Feb 08 2010 03:52 PM
Big Ed is not small.
Sometimes when you preface a name with "Tiny" or "Big" you mean the opposite.
Not with Big Ed (Carter). Big Ed was Big the last time I saw him 14 years ago and Big Ed is still Big.
Big Ed is not only big -- Big Ed is back. Five years after retiring from his barber shop on River Boulevard, he has returned from chopping wood on his property in Wofford Heights.
He'd leased the shop to another barber. That didn't work out. The shop had slipped precipitously below Big Ed's standards.
And what a business he'd left. Big Ed had cut hair for 47 years. His dad, a barber since 1945, built the shop in 1956.
He saw 30 to 40 customers a day. Big Ed started at 3 a.m., worked until late afternoon. The shop hummed.
Big Ed is 70 (married for 50 years to Janell). He's now working 5:30 to 1 and has help from fellow barbers Ernie and Pete.
Haircuts are $10. Sodas 75 cents. Big Ed is back.
***
You forget. You do. When you remember, the glory is yours.
Char Gaines e-mailed to tell me about Eunice Sears, the 83-year-old actress who played Mother Abbess in the recent production of "The Sound of Music" put on by the Bakersfield Music Theatre. Sears has played the part three times.
"The thing that inspires me is that at 83, she can still can belt out the high notes with clarity and grace," Gaines wrote. "Each night of the performances, she closes Act I amidst cheers and applause. We had full houses all three nights of opening weekend. Her voice is incredible."
Saturday, I wandered over to the Stars Theatre to hear Eunice at the end of Act 1. I didn't want to leave. You forget how wonderful the sets are, the costumes (the actors of course) and the music.
"My heart will be blessed with the sound of music." Yes, it will be. Yes, it is.
Yes, Eunice can sing.
***
An e-mail from Mary Louise Durham on the column about Taco Bell.
"If memory serves me correctly, the first Taco Bell in Bakersfield was on Oak Street where John's Burgers is located now. There was a tall fire pit in front of the building. I believe Cliff Allmon, who was employed by the Bakersfield City Fire Department had the franchise. This was sometime in the mid-'60s. Does this ring a bell?"
It does. Would anybody care to differ and perhaps set the record straight?
***
Dorothy Crothers responded to the column on looking for the perfect place to retire (Bakersfield's good about seven months a year).
"There is no need to go to Italy," Dorothy wrote. "Just move to Kernville. We have four seasons, they're all beautiful, especially winter. In the summer there is a lovely breeze going down the canyon. Then we have the lake. We'd love to have you."
Dorothy keeps busy as the secretary at the Kernville United Methodist Church.
***
Last October Curtis Hartman had a double lung transplant at UCLA. I met Curtis through Nancy Chaffin, a woman with whom I work. He is a good father to 4- and 5-year-old boys and a 14-year-old stepdaughter. Before he got sick, Curtis was a claims adjuster for Farmers.
When I saw him, he was hurting. He and and his wife, Mary, were in the process of losing their home. Curtis was dragging around an oxygen tank. He was trying to be cheerful, but when you're battling an auto-immune disease as well as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, life is not a barrel of laughs.
His new lungs came from a 19- year-old male. Curtis is feeling better. The Hartmans are trying to get back on their feet.
His wife, Mary, is a hairdresser at Concept Elite Salon on Stockdale Highway. A couple of days ago, a boy delivered a package to Mary. The package contained $1,000 in cash and more than $1,000 in gift cards for groceries, gas, etc.
Inside was a typed note signed by "The Blessing Girls". The card read: "Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. We hope this gift blesses you and causes you to give thanks to God for "..every good and perfect gift is from above..."
James 1:17.
"With love and prayers The Blessing girls."
