Blood. Why did there have to be so much blood? There is no way I can get all of this cleaned up before Mom gets home, thought Levi as he surveyed the sink and counter. He did not intend on making a mess; he just wanted to be like Dad and shave like a Man. Now he was going to have to Man up, admit what he did, and probably get a whoopin’ for getting into Dad’s shave kit. Levi’s Dad Vic was a nice Man, a fair Man even, but Vic was also a firm believer in discipline. Levi’s backside still remembered the trouble he got into when took a shovel from the tool shed intending to dig a hole to China. Obedience was paramount in the Del Vecchio household. Levi looked around the gleaming white tiled bathroom for an inspirational way out of this jam, finding nothing more than towels as white and fresh as the wind driven snow. For some reason, Rachel (Levi’s Mom) insisted on stocking nothing but white towels in the white bathroom, so there was no way Levi could use the towels to clean up the mess and hope to get away with it. Desperate for a solution, Levi grabbed the spare roll of toilet paper kept in the little cabinet next to the sink and began to wipe up all of the water and blood collected in the sink and on the counter. Levi giggled to himself as a flashback of a similar mess came to mind. Last week, at her tenth birthday party, Levi’s Sister Holly had been eating her birthday cupcake, washing it down with gulps of Fanta Strawberry Soda Pop, when all of a sudden she sneezed, sending reddish pink rivulets of soda pop flying everywhere. Holly was lucky that her party was outside on the back porch instead of in the white carpeted dining room. Levi finished cleaning up his mess and was sure to flush the now quite pink toilet paper down the commode. Levi then thoroughly rinsed out his Dad’s shave brush, dutifully squeezing out all of the water and shaking the remaining water out of the brush before slapping it back and forth on the shave towel kept by the sink. The shave towel was a gift to Vic from Rachel. Rachel had spent hours cross stitching a pattern resembling a shave brush and razor into the linen towel, presenting it to Vic fourteen years ago as a Father’s Day present on the day she announced that she was pregnant with Levi, their first child and only Son. Levi then turned his attention to the object of his greatest fascination, his Dad’s razor. To say it was Levi’s Dad’s razor is a bit inaccurate. The razor actually had belonged to Levi’s Grandpa Leo. Grandpa Leo had bought the Schick Injector I-2 “Hydro Magic” brand new down at the Five & Dime on Main Street way back in 1957, on the very same day that he bought his new Chevy. Leo figured “Hey! I Have A New Car, I Need A New Razor!” Leo shaved with the Schick every day until he passed away peacefully at the ripe old age of Eighty-Five and then the razor became the daily shaver of Levi’s Dad Vic. Levi loved to stand at his Dad’s side and watch him shave for as long as he could remember, dutifully mimicking his Dad’s movements with his “Lil Shaver Set” that he had gotten for Christmas one year. Now that Levi was fourteen, he had long outgrown the Lil Shaver Set and was actually starting to sprout a little shadow on his lip and he wanted to shave like his Dad. Levi had asked his Dad many times if he was old enough to shave yet, and could he try the Schick, but time and time again Vic would say “Son, shaving is Man’s work, come back and ask me again when you are a Man.” Each time that Vic would utter these words to Levi, they stung a little, but it gave Levi a lot to look forward to and so he would go back to watching Vic shave, committing the movements and angles to memory, filing them away until the day came that he would finally be able to shave. It was such sweet torture. Levi wanted to shave more than he wanted a new bike, or even a driver’s license, which seemed to be a coon’s age away. Levi woke himself up screaming. Again. It was “The Dream.” The Dream had become more and more frequent these days. As Levi sat in bed, soaked with sweat, huffing and puffing trying to catch his breath, he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to control the rib cracking waves of sobs that welled up from way deep inside his body. Levi missed his Dad so very much. Vic did not come home that night so long ago when Levi was struggling to clean up the bathroom. What Levi would not give to have had to fess up to his Dad and admit that he had been in the shave kit and having to accept a whoopin’ for breaking the rules of the house, the least of which was to stay out of other peoples things. Vic was a giant of a man, standing six and a half feet tall, with a great big barrel chest and thick, ropey muscled arms. Vic was an exemplary Officer on the Police Force. Vic had survived Vietnam and many years on the Police Force, never having to draw his gun. Vic was adept at talking his way through sticky situations, but he was gunned down in the prime of life one day by a punk stealing a car, leaving behind his wife and children. Every night, as Levi drank himself into a stupor, trying to kill the emptiness inside of him, he begged God to bring his Dad back. Or let him join his Dad in the eternal sleep. Yet each morning, Levi would dutifully wake and go about his morning routine, just as his Dad and Granddad had done before him, using the same razor those Men had used. Men. Man. Levi understands now what his Dad had told him so many years ago. The words echo in is head every morning as he picks up the same razor those Men had shaved with; “come back and ask me again when you are a Man.” Far off in the distance, on the other side of the house, Levi hears the unmistakable voice of his own Son: “Daaaaaaaddddddiiiiiieeeeee” “Daaaaaaaddddddiiiiiieeeeee” “Daaaaaaaddddddiiiiiieeeeee” So begins another generation. Levi vowed to himself that very day to give to his son Jake, what time did not allow Vic to give to Levi. Levi thinks to himself as he pads down the hallway to his Son’s bedroom, “Today, I promise to open the doors of wet shaving to my Boy.” “Jake may not be old enough to shave, but he will for sure know about all of the soaps and creams that he one day will be able to choose from.” “Jake will know the difference between an aftershave and cologne and the nuances of each.” “I shall show Jake why some days are better suited to a double edge razor, and other days an Injector is the ticket to a great shave, and yet other days, a single edge is called for, and one day, maybe even a straight razor will be introduced into the mix.” “Perhaps Jake and I will restore a Rolls Razor together and he will have both the Schick and Rolls Razor to pass on to my Grandchild. “Badger, Boar, Synthetic, any manner of brushes, vintage and modern.” “The possibilities are endless.” “Maybe Jake and I will start a shave forum together! We can call it FatherandSonShaving.com!” Levi reached his Son’s room and popped in to see Jake playing with his Play-Doh Fuzzy Barber Play Set. Jake looked up at his Dad and said “Look Daddy! I gave him a shave!” Levi broke out in a grin as long as the horizon, even though Jake should have been fast asleep at three o’ clock in the morning. Levi swept Jake up in his arms and said “Good job Son! Let’s go celebrate!” So off went Dad and Son, Son and Dad, to pour some milk over a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and enjoy the time they have together. My Friends, a razor, if properly cared for, will serve you for a lifetime, and the lifetime of your children, and your children’s children. In the greater scope of things, one person’s lifetime is short compared to the lifetime of a finely engineered instrument. As human beings, we are but fruit on a vine; we are born, we ripen, we perish. Don’t wait until the last minute to share your passion for shaving with your children. I think of all the enjoyment that I could have had earlier in life if I would have had a Dad around who knew the ins and outs of wet shaving. Instead, when I joined the Navy at the age of seventeen, I had to struggle though canned goo and the cartridge razor of the week while hacking away at my face every day, eventually moving on to electric razors and depilatory creams which ultimately gave me a permanent chemical burn on my chin. Finally, I found The Shave Den, and I was able to learn what it means to Shave Like A Man, and I am a better person because of it. Don’t wait another day; it could be your last.
Jeff, Here I am, two weeks or so from the birth of my second daughter (no sons to pass the art down to, but hey, we have woman members!), with tears in my eyes from the heart-wrenching beauty of what I just read. Thank you for the reminder...I'll be sure to give my three year old a little extra time and love tonight when I get home. Best, Josh
Wow...that's deep Jeff. Thanks for the read. I look forward to the day that I can pass along all of my knowledge regarding life, fun, hobbies, and women (Well, the little that I know :whacky011) to my future son.
Great go at it Jeff :happy088 Really good writing mang! It'll be time soon, my boy has a pinchable amount of fuzz on his upper lip. My daughter just had her first leg shave with a DE last week. SWMBO is teetering on the edge....I think she saw that my daughter made short work of it so it can be done without losing limbs.....won't be long and the whole clan will be shaving properly. Think of the money we'll save :happy102 :scared001
Great story Jeff!! :signs107 :happy096 I have already started my sons and daughter down the path of proper wetshaving, now I have to convince the wife. Again
I am speechless, it was so good I have nothing to say, be nice to see more stories like this one from more people, maybe I will have one to tell one day
