How I got started and the return
A little better than a half century ago as I was watching my great uncle shave, I asked, "Uncle Tony, why do you use that barber kind of razor instead of one like Dad uses?
He responded, "Shaving with a straight razor is a useful skill for a man to have. When you are old enough, I'll teach you. Besides, someday, when you are married you will understand."
About 10 years later, Uncle Tony was good to his word and he set me up with a razor and taught me to use it. It was cool and awed my friends. But after a couple of years, I wound up in the Army and life in the barracks meant a return to safety razors.
Not many years after, I got married and was living off-post. One morning, running late, I picked up the clogged, dull, matted mess that was my razor, and my great uncle's words came back to me. "Yes I was married and understood."
That evening the 4/8 Henckels he gave me when I turned 16 came out of the closet, the strop went into the bathroom. So except for hanging onto a good DE Gillette for those times I had to live in the billets, and these days a for traveling on the airlines. I have been gratefully using my meager collection of razors for about 45 years now and have passed on Uncle Tony's wisdom to my sons and nephews.
