Unisex Haircuts

[1992] - 7yrs old.

Swinging my legs from an old wooden bench, I bit off Bubble O'Bill's frozen gum ball nose. I was sandwiched between my brother and sister, in the alley behind our Dad's work. He owned an electronics store in the bustling metropolis of Gatton (Australia) and we spent our afternoons eating junk food before playing Commander Keen on a sale-able IBM.

In the echoey, tiled alley was a hairdresser shop with sign saying, "Unisex Haircuts." While chewing on those tasteless gum balls, I would spend time wondering what "unisex" meant - and why people were so open about getting theirs cut. Surely, unisex haircuts were something Joey Jeremiah should be teaching me about on the currently-age-inappropriate Degrassi Jr. High.

I licked the ice cream off the popsicle stick, without my Mum seeing (she had some irrational fear of tongue splinters) and wandered into the store. In the back room were computers so old that all they could do was word-process, so I pretended I was a published author and wrote my prolific memoirs.

I can't know for sure, but I think it said, "When I grow up I want to be Jennie Garth."