This is Rumblestrip. I'm Erica Heilman. A few years ago, my sister told me she had a feeling that I should maybe talk with her hairdresser, Vaughn, Hood. Vaughn ran a salon with his wife, Bev, in St. John'sbury, Vermont, and my sister said that he'd mentioned his time in Vietnam to her while he was cutting her hair, and they didn't talk much about it, but she thought

maybe somebody should. I knew inside of a couple minutes that I wanted to interview him. There was

something profoundly gentle about him and also kind of a scary stillness. In a way, he seemed almost

more than human, which I can't explain at all. We sat down in the back of his salon one day in those chairs

with the attached drier helmets, and pretty much all I did was turn the microphone on. It was one of the

most extraordinary conversations I've ever had in my life. The story is edited by my friend

and mentor Larry Massett. In honor of Veterans Day, here is Von Hood,

an American life.

I grew up in a small town in southeastern Michigan. It had a population of 150. And most

everybody worked in factories.

I'm from working people.

And I'd overheard my father say that he'd like one of his sons to become a barber.

He grew up during the Depression.

So he said barbers didn't make very much money, but he said they got a dime of haircut.

They did make money. whereas he said nobody else

made money. So he thought barbering was depression-proof. So when I realized I couldn't go to college,

I'd decide, I guess I could be a barber. So I saved my money for about six months and had

enough money to pay for my tuition to barber school, which was quite an

experience for me being a country boy. Because it was in Detroit, Michigan. Couldn't believe how

tall the buildings were, you know. And there was a guy there that was a porn star, but he was getting

too old to be a porn star anymore, so he was going into barbering, and so as a second occupation, you know.

My mom would have, you know, never understood that sort of thing, but I thought it was very cool.

...