 |
| OAFS Photo |
It all started back at Thanksgiving when Roberto, Grandson #2, informed me that he had learned a new word. That's right, moustache.
"What's it mean?"
"It's hair over your mouth."
"Do you want Grandpa to grow a moustache?" I asked, knowing full well that it would drive The Missus Herself batsh!t crazy.
"Yes."
So that is how I came to have a moustache. Mind you, it's not my first moustache, but I think it's my finest moustache.
I had one in the Air Force for a short while, but based on Air Force Regulation 35-10, the hair could not extend past the corners of the mouth, nor extend over the lip. So, as my mouth is somewhat smallish, my moustache kinda made me look like a certain chancellor of Germany in the 30s and 40s.
Yup, shaved it off.
While I was in the Air Force and on leave back in the US of A, I grew another. This one was completely out of regulations but as I was on leave, I wasn't worried. (A buddy of mine in Germany went on leave for a month, grew a beard and a moustache. He got jacked up on a base in southern Germany for not shaving. Yup, back in the day one had to be in regulations all the time.)
I also had a moustache after I retired from the Air Force, a beard as well. I rather enjoyed not shaving everyday. It did get itchy at first but when it grew in, I was loving it. The Missus Herself not so much. She made me trim it, which became more of a hassle than shaving. But I endured, until one day after church we went downtown to get a bagel. I was wearing my nice suit and a fedora, felt very cosmopolitan I did. Until I saw my reflection in a shop window.
I looked like one of these fellows -
 |
| Union and Confederate veterans shaking hands at reunion to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. (Source) |
I was 47 at the time. I didn't want to look like an old guy.
As I now am, officially, an "old guy," the whiteness of the moustache and (sigh) the hair doesn't bother me.
Much.
As for the opening photo, I wasn't smiling, but I do know how ...
 |
| OAFS Photo |
Be seeing you ...
Every time I see or hear "moustache,"
ReplyDeleteLa mélasse donnera demain le Cognac
Followed by, in this case, "Sarge a de longues moustache"
It looks good on you. Never trust a clean shaven man, he's trying to hide something.
SHMBO has made it clear that if I ever want a divorce all I need to do is shave.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/APefbHWo4u2fuSr16
You look like a patriarch, Joe. Very nice whiskers!
DeletePectoral Cross isn't big enough!
DeleteThanks. I do trim it up every couple of months.
Well, can't steal their thunder, right?
DeleteNow THAT'S a 'stache Sarge........... :)
ReplyDeleteThe Missus Herself is saying that it's too much!
DeleteI can't say I've had a moustache all my life as I was clean shaven in bootcamp. The beard had to go for "A" school (USCG AD "A" school) and again when I was at a C-130 (O2 mask) station.
ReplyDeleteFinally Father's Day 1986 the new CG Commandant ordered all beards gone. Mine had been red... 1997 I retired and grew the beard back, it was salt & pepper then and went to grey before too long... then snow white within a year.
I did shave my whole face one more time so the kids (& me :-) could see what I looked like clean shaven. I don't need to do that again!
FWIW beards give babies something to hold on to & it's not a bad thing...
The stach looks good on you Sarge! Have a good Sunday...
The grandsons in MD love it, their sister is still up in the air about it.
DeleteWell done! That is what my mustachioed lip wanted to look like, but it got follicularly stunted just out of pubertus. Not enough fertilize to grow much fur, I reckon. As to looking like those august gentlemen warriors, one could do worse.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, one could do far worse. (But looking 70+ in one's 40s is something of a morale buster.)
DeleteSpice says I've always been bearded. That's not true, there are barefaced photos from the seventies, post-USMC (perhaps before she noticed me.) I've always shaved my neck. Dark brown, to salt and pepper, to cinnamon and sugar, to white. I tried, for probably a decade, to have a handlebar, it was always too sparse and I've given up that attempt. The tiny photo <\ is as good as it got.
ReplyDeleteYour facial hair makes you look very distinguished, htom.
Deletedon't let anyone talk you out of it.
ReplyDeletemid-'60s AF no facial hair in CONUS - period!
wisea$$ asks: you want me to shave my eyebrows?
Had an instructor at NCO Academy in Keesler who bragged about having written someone up for his hair touching his shirt collar. It was the guy's chest hair, we mocked that instructor without pity. A real knucklehead.
DeleteFor a time, Marines had to wear v-necked t-shirts under their Charlie short-sleeved khaki shirts because some Commandant didn't like seeing " undershirts" or some such; which I think may then have led to shaven chests. Silly.
DeleteBoat Guy
One of the schools I went to in the Air Force did the same damned thing. Silly wandering dangerously close to stupid in my book.
DeleteSarge, that is fine moustache!
ReplyDeleteI have had a moustache for most of my adult life now, and a longer (aka "Barbershop Quartet") one for the last 20 or so. I knew I had finally arrived when, after my last reset (e.g. shaving it off) in 2016, The Ravishing Mrs. TB commented "You should regrow it. You look weird without it". Mind you, she is not a huge fan of it either.
Beards...I can grow a decent on on my lower jaw, but my cheeks are always rather spotty.
I will say that the moustache gets a fair amount of comments, especially from the young (20-30's) age set, which surprises me.
Also, bless you for spelling it correctly.
DeleteTB #1 - What is it with spouses and facial hair? Mine is fanatical about wanting it trimmed, I like it wild and untamed!
DeleteTB #2 - Apparently the alternate spelling is widely used in the United States. I prefer the original spelling.
DeleteSarge - I do not know if you use anything for your moustache, but I highly recommend Truefitt and Hill's Beard Balm. It is a bit pricey, but it lasts a long time. It is not was, but I do use it to style the ends (and it is British, which means it must be super good): https://www.truefittandhill.com/collections/mustache/products/gentlemans-beard-balm
DeleteWell yes, that is a bit pricey, but thanks for the tip. Something to look into.
DeleteCompletely agree, but on the bright side I am well into my second year of using the acquired bottle and still have approximately 40% to go, so it may average out.
DeleteThere is that.
DeleteI, at one time, had a full ZZ Top/Duck Dynasty facial explosion. Angry times called for angry hair. I got over it. Now I just have a 'stache from one corner of my mouth to another, trimmed off the top lip. A half-Selleck (or a porn stache for old people) but it works. Mainly do it because I hate shaving under my nose.
ReplyDeleteWife likes it, so it's okay.
No sideburns. No beard. No neck hairs all around. And I cut my own hair using an electric trimmer with a #2 guard, well, what hair I have left.
Your moustache looks good on you. Which will last until The Missus thinks a cast-iron frying pan looks good on you. There will be signs.
A half-Selleck, I like it. What you call a porn 'stache is what some Navy wives call their husbands' "cruise 'stache," a moustache grown while out to sea for months (typically carriers and typically it's the aircrew who grow those) at a time. They have a similar look. At least on my son-in-law they do. 🙄
DeleteCruise ( Deployment) 'staches are still a thing.
DeleteBG
Oh yes they are, I have a few photos of SIL#1 with his cruise 'stache. He's still on active duty.
DeleteVery nice Sarge!!
ReplyDeleteMy second husband had his moustache since he was in high school...he shaved it off one fine weekend day and the two dogs, who were outside when he went into the bathroom to do the deed, both barked and barked at him when they came in and saw this stranger sitting in the living room...took "his" dog 2 days before he stopped giving him the side eye...we laughed like crazy. He grew it back again.
Suz
Sounds like the reaction my grandson Finnegan gave me, he wasn't used to me having facial hair.
DeleteHe is now!
Worse, staying at home with my parents for the summer in my college days, on one hot summer day II shaved my full beard off. It was more than a week before my mother even noticed.
DeleteOuch!
DeleteLooks good!
ReplyDeleteI think that particular growth is popular among firefighters, at least it was in the early 20th century.
Now, what brand of Oatmeal are we supposed to get?
JB
Get yourself a steaming bowl of ...
DeleteWell, Quaker Oats, what other brand is there.
It's the right thing to do. 😁
One thing I do misd from time to time.... caramel apples. Getting caramel out of a "longues moustache" can be interesting.
ReplyDeleteHaven't attempted that, probably won't. Forewarned is forearmed!
DeleteI never noticed before how binary that ship whose hat your wear is. I think there were just the 2 during my time in, both 10s although I was still in when the new Kidd showed up.
ReplyDeleteAnd so it is, never really noticed that before. Now it's glaringly obvious.
DeleteAnd me, claiming to be a computer guy ...