Memories of those charming days

To the editor:

Barbershops bring people together, as Norman Rockwell reminds us. My barber told us that often customers meet by chance who have not seen each other for 50 years. As we spoke of that at a birthday party, I discovered that none of us could name the chiropractor lady whose office was on Pacific Street a block north of Broadway. A quick call to Doc Ford settled that, but we visited her office again in memory, and George Suggs remembered that she had helped his aching back and that for a small woman she had incredibly strong hands. Professor Grauel sometimes asked me if I knew the name of the fellow in Buckner Ragsdale who sold men's suits. I did not, but I did recall their money changers that ran on cables. And I remember the merry sounds of the calliopes on the boats which came to call. And I remember Flo's Cab. "The best of times are now," the song goes. But those increasingly remote days were charming too.

PETER HILTY

Cape Girardeau