RAT TAIL

Part of a series of stories I wrote while living in Wisconsin in the 80s

This is a tale of a tail – a rat tail that is!  My ten-year-old son Fred has grown his tail halfway down to his waist.  Rat tails are long sections of hair that people allow to grow indefinitely.  I don’t know what makes them eventually decide to cut them off.  I hope to find out soon. 

We went to Grandma’s house for Christmas.  When I saw my nephew walk in with one side of his hair sticking up like a rooster comb and the other side down in his eyes (and an earring in one ear!) I quit worrying about my son’s rat tail right then and there!

We adults went about our business and tried not to notice the boys’ hair again until one evening after dinner.  I had found my husband’s high school yearbook and left it on the table – after reading all the notes from his girlfriends, of course.  The kids started pouring over it to find their dad’s football pictures and graduation pictures.  They checked out every detail of the strange prom dresses and crew cuts.  I hardly noticed them until I heard John (the one with the rooster comb) say, “Boy!  They sure had some weird hair styles back then!”

Fred tried several times that week to get his hair to look like John’s.  It’s hard to do, though, if you aren’t willing to cut off your tail!