I’ve celebrated another birthday recently. One of my birthday cards contained a message that I was getting a new PC! When I opened it up the PC was a Personal Comb, not that I need one much these days to comb those few stray hairs on top of my head.

The subject of combs took me back to grade eight when I used to pack a rat tail comb in my back pants pocket. Most of us grade eight boys had such an item on our person.

Our rat tail went with our skin tight pants with legs half way down our calves. Our white socks covered the rest of our calves and our brown brogue shoes covered our feet.

My sister had graduated two years earlier, so I didn’t have her to critique my wardrobe. My favorite shirt was red and yellow striped which I wore with the pants, socks and shoes.

Of course we all had our hair slicked down with Brylcreem. The spelling came from Wikipedia. That site shows a screw top container, but I know that the product we used came from a metal tube.

I didn’t want to spend money on Brylcreem so I used Vaseline instead. It did the job but was not as soft and subtle as the Brylcreem. We grew our hair so it would sweep in a wave from the front of our heads to the back and then comb the back of the head into a duck tail. At one point my hair reached from the front of my head down to my chin so when combed into the wave it would extend down between my duck tail.

The way our hair looked was so important to us that it was the last thing we did before we left the bathroom. To check your hair meant you would have to join the lineup at the mirror and wait your turn to make sure that every hair was in its place. If you stepped out of line you lost your place, there was no mercy shown by the other boys.

Of course the rat tail didn’t come out of its pocket until you were at the mirror, then it would do its job and return to its pocket as you left the mirror and headed out the door.

In 1963, from the top of our heads to the tips of our toes, we were a cool bunch of boys!

Soon the Beatles would come in (1964) and long hair was not far behind, so Brylcreem was destined to go out except with a few die hards who were three to four years older than us cool boys.

When long hair became fashionable, the rat tail went out as a fashion item and the hair brush took its place. I didn’t carry a hair brush because my hair ceased to be my prime focus.

I stopped carrying a comb years ago although I don’t know exactly when. I still have a rat tail comb though, it sits unused in a bathroom drawer because now it seems to get in the way.

My new comb? It will go into a drawer with the rest of the usable combs.