This is Rumble Strip, I'm Erica Heilman. A few years ago my sister told me she had a feeling that I should maybe talk with her hairdresser, Von Hood.

Von ran a salon with his wife Bev in St. Johnsbury, 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 dryer

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 and had a population 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 a 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, So he thought barbering was depression proof.

So when I realized I couldn't go to college,

I decided, 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 Barbara School, which was quite an experience for me being a country boy.

Because it was in Detroit, Michigan.

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