Just over 50 years ago, in September of 1974, I reported to the Navy ROTC unit in the World War II-era Quonset hut on the campus of Oregon State University. There I met a thing I had vaguely known existed in theory but which, in reality, soon played an outsized role in my young and previously sheltered life. That thing was a United States Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant. I soon learned from the Gunny that my name was no longer Jimmy, Jim, or even James!

Instead, for the next two weeks of mini boot camp, my name became “Maggot.” But because midshipmen are technically officers, and Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeants are senior enlisted, my full name was: “Maggot, sir!”

Life can change very quickly, if you’re not paying attention.

But the Gunny was not the most traumatic change of those eventful few days. Some of you will remember that 1974 was a very hairy year. And I don’t mean “hairy” in the informal sense of “alarming or difficult,” as in, “The drive up the mountain road was really hairy.”

No, I mean that in 1974, we all had immense amounts of hair—which for me and my colleagues ended on day one of mini boot camp. And in those hairy times, we stood out on campus, even at Oregon State University, otherwise known as the “Cow College.” The hippie college, the University of Oregon, was down the road in Eugene.

After 4 years as a midshipman, 4 years on active duty, and 12 years in the reserves, I finally got used to the simplicity of this glorious haircut. And I’ve had the same Navy regulation haircut since I was 18 years old—off the ears and tapered in back. The regulation has grown some since my day, but it still says, “off the ears, and tapered in back.”

Finding a barber who can do a basic Navy regulation haircut has been harder over the years than I would have thought. Shortly after I moved to the Shenandoah Valley 23 years ago, I settled on Potter’s Barber Shop on East Main Street in Berryville, Virginia. Berryville is a small town very much like Mayberry, and Potter’s is a Barber Shop very much like Floyd’s.

The last name of the barber, Mark, isn’t actually Potter, even though this is the name of his shop. Potter was the barber who established Potter’s Barber Shop in 1898. Like the Dread Pirate Roberts, each successive barber has kept the name.

The first time I tried out the shop, I told Mark I wanted a standard Navy haircut. When I left the shop, I realized he had blocked the back instead of tapering it. For the next month, my OCD would not let me forget that weird feeling above my collar.

Something just wasn’t right.

So, the next time I sat down in Mark’s barber chair I was more explicit: “Off the ears and tapered in back.” Mark is an old-timey barber who uses clippers and a comb, and this time he got it exactly right.

For the next year or so, Mark would say, “So what are we doing today?”

I’d say, “Off the ears and ta—”

He’d interrupt me and say, “Oh yeah, you’re tapered-in-back guy.”