mr. cody story

I recently wrote this for the Facebook Group "Children of Jack Cody." It seemed like something fun to post here:


It was the spring of 2000 and we were neck deep in The Trip to Bountiful, our entry for UIL One-Act Play contest. The four leads had received the script the summer before...the rest had been working since December. District Contest had come and gone and we were thrilled to have displaced Bowie High School's craptacular version of Persephone (amid much wailing from their cast, I might add, who were shocked that their Vegas-style spectacle was usurped). We were gearing up for area contest in Stephenville in a couple of weeks, and before heading to one of our evening rehearsals I stopped to get a haircut.

It was innocent enough; my hair was extremely long and needed a trim. I'd been doing it since I was three years old on a fairly regular basis. My coiffure recently updated, I parked my Dodge Ram on Cherry St., hopped out and started heading over to the backstage door at M. Aud. As luck would have it, Cody had just arrived and was getting out of his car at the same time. I knew he had seen me by the enormous gasp that spilled forth from his lips.

**large intake of breath** "ERIC!"

I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Yes, sir?"

He descended on me like a vulture on roadkill and to be honest I was fairly certain that I was momentarily going to join their ranks. He grabbed my head, grasping at the hair that was freshly sliced, dropped his voice and at the same time raised it and uttered the words that still pierce my soul today:

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!!"

I was confused. What had I done? Was it the acne? Good grief, what do you expect when you slather tinted grease on your face on a semi-regular basis? Was it the parking job? I admit it, parallel parking isn't my greatest forte. I replied,

"UH, I don't know"

"YOUR HAIR! YOU'VE CUT YOUR HAIR"

Oh that, no worries I thought, it's just hair.

"ERIC. THIS IS A PERIOD SHOW, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE LONG HAIR, HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!?"

How could I do it? What was I thinking? Had my brain been deprived of oxygen that morning? Had I temporarily lost my sanity? At least it resulted only in the death of my hair, and not a life. But I knew what I was thinking. I was thinking that if I had continued to let my hair grow it would have been too long. I knew it grew fast. I knew it would be ok, so stupidly I stood up for myself.

"Mr. Cody, it will grow. My hair grows fast. It will be fine."

"Uhoohhh (you know that little exasperated wail he makes) It better be. You are NOT allowed to cut ANYTHING again without permission."

"Okay. Okay." I managed to croak out, "sorry."

And with that, he grabbed his bag and headed inside leaving me standing on the sidewalk feeling like a complete and total jackass idiot who was working incredibly hard to completely undermine the entire show.

Thankfully my hair did grow, and thankfully we advanced past Area, past Region, and onto the State competition, where my hair, in all it's lengthy glory, made an award winning appearance. It was a good thing we made it there, because if not, I'm sure my haircut would have been blamed.

And I didn't cut my hair for several months after it was all over. I was too scared.

that's all.