Doesn't take direction well

It was no big deal. I was starting to look a bit shaggy, so I figured that it was time for my semi-annual haircut. And being relatively new to the area, I was still uncertain as to where the best place an old man could go to get such a cut. When I asked, a couple of people in the office offered up the same business. That was easy enough, so I asked for a location. And that?s where the problem began.

I was given the name of the business and the street address. I had never heard of either. I then made the mistake of asking for directions while there was more than one person there who was willing to talk. The conversation went something like this.

?It?s real easy. Drive to the elementary school, pass it, and look for the arts and crafts in the yard.?

?Which elementary school??

?Lincoln.?

?Is that the one near the college??

?You?re kidding, right??

Obviously I wasn?t kidding. If I were kidding I would have said, ?Two men walk into a bar. The third one ducks.? I tried to explain that I still had no idea as to how to get to the arts and crafts salon. The woman was amazed but was determined to fix the problem. She reached into her desk, pulled out a map and pens that she could use for color-coding.

?Let?s try this again,? she said. ?You are here. You want to be here. Now, this is a one way street, so drive this way, take a left, go back three blocks, then go east to get around the afternoon traffic.? She gave me the map.

For more, see our March 25 print edition.