A blast from my past and my only degree of separation from Timothy Leary

When I was in high school, several of my left of center friends always sported cool and trendy haircuts that made me jealous. I so wanted to be like them, at least folliclely. That is when John Cate, a fellow drummer in the marching band and a source of cool music, mentioned that he got his hair cut by Dillard Clark, a father of two members of the high school band who were always so hip, fashionable, and cool looking. Nervously, I decided to go to Dillard for a haircut to see what might happened. As it turned out, he was a dyed in the wool hipster who loved all things exotic and interesting and was more than happy to help with my quest to reach hairdo perfection, although his end results were frequently the cause of much debate and anguish between my mother and myself. But I digress...

After leaving Kingsport for college, I lost touch with Dillard. I heard that he had opened a shop to sell new agey items on the city limits, appropriately named the Dilly Lama. In a recent fit of boredom and backwards lookingness, I chanced upon his Myspace page and was amused to find that he had embraced his inner visions to finally become who he had always been - a devout Hindu, the Dilly Lama himself. As you can see, Dillard reached out to touch and meet other inner travelers of the Third Eye Express such as Dr. Timothy Leary (though I doubt that picture was taken in Kingsport). So, while I don't know that I'll ever require his services again, or even know if Dillard still cuts hair, I nevertheless embrace him as an influential visionary in my life who found the beauty of living in a town that smelled of dogshit 9 months out of the year. He knew joy and it was contagious. Take care and thanks for the perms!