Among its many claims to fame, San Diego is a military town, as I learned when I lived there in the 1990s. The Marines are at Camp Pendleton and the Top Gun pilots at Miramar. Coronado, where I rented an apartment, is home to the Navy SEALs. It’s almost impossible to go anywhere and not be aware of the military. Aircraft carriers dot the shoreline, fighter planes fly in formation overhead, and men and women in uniform perform drills on the beach.
Until I moved to San Diego, my primary experience of the military was through my uncle and his family. When I was a little girl, they visited us in New Jersey from their home in Ft. Hood, Texas, where they lived when they weren’t overseas. What I remember most from those visits was the haircuts of my four boy cousins, military-issued buzz cuts, less than an inch long. In San Diego, I saw those same cuts again, a symbol as ubiquitous as desert camouflage and combat boots.
Now I’m married to someone who served twenty years in the Army. Whenever we visit San Diego, my husband Tim goes to one of its many bases to get his hair cut in the close-cropped style that is the military signature. This trip, Mateo did, too. The barber gave my son a “2-to-1 fade,” which means the clipper is set to “2” on top and “1” in the back, as short as you can get without being bald. With his new haircut, Mateo looks like a mini-Marine.
I can’t stop saying “Hoo-rah!”
ShareThisTags: adoptive family, military family, San Diego
i like his hair cut..he looks awesome!!
Thanks, Nur. I like the way it shows his beautiful face.
Joe cuts his own hair and the hair of his friends. Sometimes I finish what he can’t reach. They favor the “fades” as well. Practice for the Academy I’m guessing, not to mention its cool in more way than one.
I usually do the honors, but the pros take over in San Diego. Maybe Joe will set up shop, though lots of pros there, too, no doubt.
I have the same haircut, but it looks much better on Mateo!
Mark: I bet you underestimate yourself! Thanks for the nice comment about Mateo.