Allan from Gilmanton wrote with this story, often told by his friend Alan (yup, two friends with the same name, different spellings). You gotta love the detail! I’m adding it to my collection of David Souter, folk hero, stories. Thanks Allan and Alan.
“There’s a barber shop in Concord, N.H. It’s up on Pleasant Street right across from the Federal Court House. You know, next to the pizza place. Well, I go in there about once a week to have a trim. It’s not one of those fancy unisex salons with comely women styling your hair, it’s a barber shop. Two chairs, two barbers who are men. There are wooden chairs along the back wall beneath a large plate glass mirror. Lots of sports and hunting magazines on the table next to the chairs. Well, I’ve just sat down in chair No. 2 and Dave, the barber, is fixing that paper around my neck and draping me with a cloth when (U.S. Supreme Court) Justice Souter walks in. His New Hampshire office is in the Federal Court House, and he is a regular at the shop. No one else is there at the moment and he gets into chair No. 1, and Mike starts in on him. Small talk ensues as our barbers begin to snip away.
Two other fellows come in and take seats to await their turns. Picture this. Both barber chairs are facing the large window that looks out onto Pleasant Street. Everyone in the shop, all six of us, are looking across the street at the Court House just as a lovely young woman on roller skates comes into view. She’s dressed in pink short shorts and a purple bikini top. The skates are bright metalic blue like a race car. She is also wearing lots of bracelets on one arm. A vivid tatoo of a spider crawls up her left leg. She is skating fast and disappears down the sidewalk in an instant.
We all have seen, but no one says anything at first. Then from one of the chairs at the back of the shop one of the fellows waiting to be ‘next’ says 'Ayah, that’s Concord for ya.' ”
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