mr. comie carroll's barbershop. but mr. comie had one good arm and one bad arm. so he was a one-armed barber, and he would give everyone a straightedge cut across the back of the neck. we called it a washington square because the back of your head looked square. i don't know where that came from. but he would hold the leather strap between his legs and then he'd strop that razor, and then he would make this perfectly straight line across the back of your neck, and then -- at least he had my neck -- within 24 hours, all these razor bumps would break out. but what was important about it for an adolescent was that was where sex education 101 took place. it certainly didn't take place in the public schools in mineral county in west virginia. so all these men would sit there all day long, rain or shine or winter or summer, and hear mr. comie carroll tell the filthiest, most risque jokes and look at these magazines that would come through the mail wrapped in three layers of brown paper. and i didn't even know what the words meant sometimes that they used. i had no more