Most of the time, Jason Durrett's customers sit in his barber chair. But at half past 11 on a particularly slow morning last week, he was the one occupying the chair at Gene's Barber Shop in Mitchell.

As a teenager in the ’50s, I once wore a hairstyle that was considered pretty stylish despite Elvis Presley’s ducktails. It was called the flattop. And I was pretty particular about it, too. A flattop ...