I'm An old Cowhand From the Rio Grande
But my legs ain't bowed and my cheeks ain't tan.
And I'm bleedin' like a stuck hog due to sloppy wielding of a 1938 Gillette Senator loaded with an Astra Platinum blade this morning.
I hail from the Great State of Texas.
Started shaving in September of 1969 on a Saturday night when my dad gave me his old Gillette Fat Boy (he'd gone over to Norelco electric wonderment by the mid 1960s) and told me to shave the peach fuzz off before church next morning. There was no Fat Boy nickname connected with that model Gillette adjustable razor then and I received no instructions other than to lather up with the Safe Guard soap and shave. Didn't know a thing about the adjustable feature and thought more numeral was better so left it set on 6 to 9 for years. Soon after marrying in 1978 I gleefully tossed the Fat Boy to the back of a bathroom drawer and graduated to a Gillette Trac II.
After progressing through Gillette's latest and greatest multi-blade creations and their associated marketing I was shaving with Fusion in 2011 and complaining to my eldest son that the Fusion blades didn't shave as well as they did upon introduction and blade prices had risen to unattractive levels. He suggested that I try double edge shaving as he was doing. I replied: No, I've been there and done that. After a few months of consideration though, I tentatively took my wife's grandfather's 1949 Gillette Tech on a test drive with dismal results. Kept at it though and finally mastered it for the first time in my life. Then I went on a collecting spree and gathered in most of the main Gillette models produced between 1904 and 1988, tried all the soaps, creams, and potions.
Oh, that Fat Boy from my youth and early adulthood? The youngest son lost it in a show-and-tell at the elementary school years before I again could have made use of it.
The Forum appears attractive with interesting topics of discussion. I enjoy reading, music, collecting stuff (firearms, coins, watches, razors, antiquarian books), shooting sports, hunting, and fishing. I'm a proudly retired fogy geezer too. If it's old tech, vintage models, or yesterday's news then it's superior to today's stuff.
And that's the way it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo-pApe1Kd0