Quote from: RE on Jun 27, 2024, 07:54 PMIn this ocean of enshittification, the Diner floats along like a relic from another time when the Internet held promise and a few people could gather together to talk about the day's events.  What people used to do before that in bars and barber shops and beauty parlors.  Those places are all gone now also.

Interestingly, not quite. I have a barber shop. It isn't near where I live, but every time I'm in town, that is where I go. The only place I go. Otherwise the wife occasionally takes a crack at it. He is just a barber, doesn't do shaves, he bought the place from the prior barber, quit his job and began barbering himself. I've never seen a single person pay him in anything other than cash, $10 each. We usually give him $15. We talk the size of our gardens, the cars we drive (pickups and older ones like he and I do), the Colonel (not a nickname but his old rank) and I got into a great conversation last time I was there about the ongoing "invasion" of America, he was terrifically entertaining, educated and logical. There was a young man in there as well, mentally challenged in some way, lost his cash on the way to the shop. The barber frequents the gym the young man runs the front door and concession stand for, he traded his haircut for free waters when the barber and his wife go there a few times a week to exercise. I swear, half the people in there didnt' really need a haircut, were just getting trimmed a little.

No different of a barber shop than when I was a kid.

The wife says I am just old, and being sentimental. I tell her she just doesn't know why I like the place...and it has nothing to do with how they cut my hair or trim my beard.

Not quite gone, if you roam the land widely and keep your eyes open.