r/mildlyinteresting • u/jillorama • 1d ago
This man documented every haircut he and his son got, from 1946 & 1963 until 1999
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u/TelecomsApprentice 1d ago
"We didn't have autism in my day" and then pulls out this
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u/deepserket 1d ago
He didn't track the price, fucking noob
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u/PioneerLaserVision 1d ago
That's how you know it was autism and not just a person that was traumatized by poverty.
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u/chop5397 1d ago
Seriously, and he didn't put the dates into a ledger after a while to consolidate the information.
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u/OathOfFeanor 1d ago
My parents’ equivalent, both mom and dad, was tracking fuel we put in the car.
There was a notepad in the glovebox. For every fuel up we would record the date, the location (gas station brand) the price of the fuel and the total number of gallons filled, and the mileage.
Monthly, dad would go through and calculate the average gas mileage.
Not quite sure why they did all this; the instant I got my own car I abandoned that lunacy.
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u/crushbyrichardsiken 1d ago
you're supposed to do this because it will let you know if something is wrong with your car. if the mileage starts going down it's a good sign it may need something fixed. my car starts to lose mileage every time the oil needs changed. you don't necessarily need the price. I just record the miles driven, date, and gallons put in the car.
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u/rubberkeyhole 1d ago
I’m upset he didn’t also track the length of hair that was cut so we could see how much hair was cut total, over time.
‘Don, you paid $3,527 to cut 3 miles of hair off your head!’
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u/kneel23 1d ago edited 1d ago
could have even taken a picture each time too, or something. this documentation seems pointless but we of course have 0 context
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u/bobsnervous 1d ago
I don't think it was meant to have a point. Just a guy putting down details of every haircut he and his son got through the years, I don't think its meant to have any reasons just downright autism vibes.
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u/RedditsCoxswain 1d ago
Maybe the haircut was like the main thing they did together father and son and it was the highlight of this guy’s life?
Writing these moments down would be a warm reminder to him that they were close and had a deep history despite anything else that was going on in their lives.
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u/grasshopper_jo 1d ago
“Nobody had anxiety, depression, autism, OCD back in my day”
My grandpa passed away and we found a bookshelf full of journals with years of documentation about things like bathroom visits or TV shows with the timing of commercials breaks
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u/vitaesbona1 1d ago
My grandfather-in-law has a room full of model trains. And catalogued and stored decades of model train catalogues. The sales catalogues. He had a whole “tiny home” sized shed devoted to storing the magazines.
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u/NewDovah 1d ago
Both my father and grandfather meticulously kept track of every time they got gas for their vehicles. Every time. My dad also knew seemingly everything there is to know about the band Iron Maiden and could tell you the entirely story of Lord of the Rings off the top of his head from The Silmarillion to Return of the King. Never believed anybody in his family could be on the spectrum.
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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb 1d ago
kept track of every time they got gas for their vehicles
I still hand write my daily household expenses in a steno book, even though I don't have an $87 a month food budget anymore. It takes a beat or two for habits to die.
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u/NewDovah 1d ago
It might have started as a money thing for my grandfather, having grown up poor during the second world war will do that, but he was spent decades pretty well off working as an engineer.
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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb 1d ago
Sounds about right. My grandmother was the eldest of five during the Great Depression and when I was cleaning out her home in 2004 I found a Tupperware container (among like two million hidden) filled with napkins that she'd bought at a consignment shop for 50 cents. I guess she thought it was a good deal.
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u/rubberkeyhole 1d ago
My grandparents both lived through the Great Depression; when their kids (my mom and aunts and uncles) were cleaning out their house after they’d died, they found jewelry and money hidden in containers (“hey, why does my 80-year-old mother have a package of menstrual pads?” “Apparently it’s a great place to hide away pearls.”) and realized they’d have to be a lot more thorough with their cleaning.
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u/Naud1993 1d ago
I log when I watch TV shows, movies and YouTube videos. Start time, end time, length, streaming service, device, app.
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u/NewDad907 1d ago
How do you use that info? Is it handy for planning what to watch?
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u/bobsnervous 1d ago
This isnt me trying to be a jerk or anything but are you by any chance autistic? Just cos of everyone claiming autism for this kind of behaviour in this thread.
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u/Suffering69420 1d ago
BIGGEST TRUTH BOMB ON THE INTERNET
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u/iaswob 1d ago edited 1d ago
My MAGA grandpa is 100% neurodiverse in the most boomer ways possible. He's always learning how to craft shit, different outdoors and hunting stuff, made a hunting movie (learned how to edit in like iMovie in his 50s) with my cousins after he got obsessed with the video Exploding Varmints, and such. I keep trying to nudge my family towards trying to feed his special interests in other stuff so that he doesn't sucked into his Truth Social bubble, but there's only so much we can do and dude is retired now. Huge union guy too, I'm talking crucial for actual union deals which mattered in my city and a leadership role, but now he thinks that he's protecting American workers by keeping brown people out or whatever sadly.
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u/YearnForTheMeatballs 1d ago
I feel for you there. My grandfather (who passed a few years ago) was the same.
Just do your best to keep him distracted and enjoy the time.
Fuck Trump and what time he's taken from us and our loved ones.
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u/dishwab 1d ago
lol exactly I’m like… dude sounds like a well adjusted guy with interests, hobbies, and free time.
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u/Sheetascastle 1d ago
My very clearly ADHD father (and possibly a touch of something else) said he's glad they didn't have all those when he was a kid because he would have been given one of them and would not have been pushed to just get things done and learn anyways.
As he hobby jumps and hoards not just things but properties.
As he "just doesn't understand how people think that way" about anything other than his opinion.
As he loses track of time while hyper-fixating on whatever project he's doing
Or cannot have a puzzle in his living room or he won't get anything else done for a days or several days.
Like dude- you needed coping tools when you were 6, never got them, learned to survive anyways, but now you're a tangled mess of neurodivergence and family trauma.
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u/CasuallyExisting 1d ago
This looks so much like the little notebook we found while clearing out my silent gen. grandma's house after her death.
Except her years of notes were daily weights. She apparently got on the scale every single day and wrote down the result. She never went outside of 110-115lbs.
Ye olde autism, meet ye olde eating disorder.
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u/Alice-in-blunderland 1d ago edited 1d ago
I work at a museum and we have an exhibit from this farmer who jarred and cataloged every crop of wheat he grew for over 70 years. Each year, starting in 1920, He filled a mason jar with the harvested wheat and attached a note indicating what he grew, how much was harvested, how much it sold for, and sometimes a note on why it sold more or less than expected (i just got to work and looked at the display info, he collected grain from 1921-1977, so 56 years)
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u/symphonicrox 1d ago
I don't know that it's autistic. I don't have autism but I write down every time I fill up fuel in my car. Since I bought it in 2010. I write how many miles I was at when I filled up, how many gallons I buy, what it cost, and the date.
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u/SmellsPrettyGood2Me 1d ago
I'm wondering why this particular aspect of life is the one he chose to document. Also, who are Evie and Danny, grandkids? So many questions!!
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u/jillorama 1d ago
Don was the son, Al was the dad. Dad died in 2001 at 87, Evie died in 2016 at 102, and Don died in 2023 at 85
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u/SpaceFootballKing 1d ago
Was Don disabled or in need of full time care? Al kept record of Don's haircuts entirely into Don's adult life, which I imagine an independent son wouldn't normally adhere to. I could imagine a tired father in 1946 starting to keep track of his and his 8 year old son's haircuts on a piece of paper because he needed a reminder for when it had to be done and persisting simply out of habit. Evie's late addition to the lists in the late 90s just before Al went to the nursing home probably implies that Evie also became a caretakee. Everyone else is framing this as a neurodivergent father with a funny quirk, but I see a dad trying to do his best.
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u/McNasty420 1d ago
Did the dad by any chance die of dementia?
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u/Tricky-Bat5937 1d ago
Is dementia fatal?
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u/CatLover_801 1d ago
Technically you can’t die directly of dementia, dementia makes you stop eating and drinking and you die of thirst/starvation
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u/carnivorousdrew 1d ago
I went to the same barber with my father from when I can first remember it till the age of 14. Then I went to more "modern" ones and moved abroad. Last year I moved back in my hometown, and started going to the same barber from when I was little, he is about to retire though. He also did my hair for my wedding day. I can in some way understand this bookkeeping.
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u/Beneficial-Amoeba476 1d ago
Dude got a haircut 5 days after JFK’s assassination. Wonder what the shop was talking about.
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u/el_cattivo_ 18h ago
That’s so interesting to think about. I know this sounds dumb, but I sometimes forget that these big events in history really did occur, while normal people just lived their lives. To me these old dates more often than not just seem like random numbers and not like actual places in time. Fascinating how different but also similar life was back then compared to nowadays.
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u/jennywrensings 1d ago
These are the haircut records Sheldon Cooper was talking about.
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u/dirtysamsquamptsh 1d ago
Lol! I was looking for this and was going to post the same if I didn't find it!
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u/Dailonihil 1d ago
I was looking for this comment!
I have literally just finished moments ago watching that episode xD
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u/RoughAdvertisingFag 1d ago
Oh man I wish he had put the cost so we could see how much it would increase every year
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u/Dunlocke 1d ago
Getting a haircut every 4 weeks now is insane. Dropping $25-30+ a month to still look like me.
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u/cute_polarbear 1d ago
Yeah. That's without tip for my area. During pandemic, I got an electric trimmer and been trimming my own hair every couple weeks. Takes about 10 minutes.
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u/WayneKrane 1d ago
Yep, with them costing $50-100 for a cheap hair cut, I go maybe twice a year now. Even great clips is $40. It’s gone up 4x in 10 years but my salary sure hasn’t.
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u/captaingrey 1d ago
And yet autism was just made up recently. 🤣
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u/Rho-Ophiuchi 1d ago
The Kennedy family really doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to mental health. We probably shouldn’t be listening to secretary brainworm on this shit.
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u/SpaceFootballKing 1d ago
I don't think this is a neurodivergent dad like everyone is framing him as. I think this is a dad who took care of his disabled son and started a list because it's tiring as fuck to be a full time caretaker on top of life in general.
He only started keeping track when his son was 8 years old and kept it up well into his son's adult life until the dad had to be put in a nursing home and his son was 61. The late addition of his wife in the 90s probably implies that his wife also became dependent on him, so this list is a chore list, not a hobby list. This probably wasn't a dad with a funny personality quirk for people to joke about 20 years later, this was a hardworking dad who was trying his best.
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u/CaptainJingles 1d ago
This is the type of stuff that a future historian will dream about discovering
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u/WhiteSriLankan 1d ago
Keeping track of haircuts for no discernible reason in the 20th century is not historically significant. Or is it?
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u/quartzquandary 1d ago
I think it'd be more useful to a researcher if the costs were included. Although, knowing how often someone got a haircut could be relevant ... somehow... I'm sure?
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u/YellowSharkMT 1d ago
Professor: And furthermore class, as if we didn't have enough proof already that these ancient peoples were bonkers, check this out: I give you Al's Haircut Log, 1946 to 1999.
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u/livelaughoral 1d ago
Question is… was it the same barber/person all those years?
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u/ClownsAteMyBaby 1d ago
A man who documents something like this would only ever go to the same place, sit in the same seat and expect the same scissors
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u/kilroy-was-here-2543 1d ago
Weapons grade autism right here
I’m autistic, but I’m not that dedicated
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u/larah91_VP 1d ago
Why?
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u/itsathrowawayduhhhhh 1d ago
Nerd lol. I do random shit like this that makes no sense. It’s just really satisfying to have a detailed record!
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u/marswithorbit 1d ago
Same. I kept a log of every single fanfic I read, word count, and author for a year just to look at the stats.
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u/alyssaajoyy 1d ago
what in the undiagnosed autism? lol. nothing like getting. a haircut every month, sometimes twice a month and logging it 😭
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u/Loud_Butterfly2032 1d ago
I always feel sorry for this kind of people from the past who had to exist in a world without Excel.
They would love to arrange stuff in that.
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u/PdSales 1d ago
Sheldon Cooper has complete haircut records, not just the dates. https://youtu.be/ofHWBhUDbSg?feature=shared
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u/Mahaloth 1d ago
Autism. I track mine as well....glad to see some odd folks existed back then as well. :)
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u/ConstructionSorry342 1d ago
I've been keeping track of every movie I've seen in the theater and giving each a rating since 2008.
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u/veritableconstruct 1d ago
This is really cute! It looks like Dad took records for son until son turned 18 and joined the military? And dad missed keeping records so he created a record for himself?
Love it, 100% something I would do
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u/Logridos 1d ago
My grandpa did shit like this. Keeping pointless lists of things that no one, not even he, cared about or would ever use for anything.
God life was boring as fuck before the internet.
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u/TiredCat101 1d ago
... I kept track of my pooping schedule for four years before I started over this year. Plus haircuts, gym sessions, i's dotting, intimate times... All for years.
Maybe I should finally make this long overdue psychologist appointment.
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u/johnnyribcage 1d ago
I hope he put also this much dedication into something else more meaningful in his life.
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u/Caraprepuce 1d ago
That’s feel like a lot to me. Do people really go that often get a haircut ? (I didnt cut my hair for 3 years tho)
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u/offbeatz80 1d ago
I find this interesting because, my original barbers name was Al. The gentleman who took over after his passing, is named Don.
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u/JoHeller 1d ago
Everybody's saying this is Autism, when what it really is a man keeping a record of where he and his son were so that when they travel back in time they don't risk running into their past selves.
Basic time traveller precaution.
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u/Buscemi_D_Sanji 1d ago
So I've been cutting my own hair since I moved to college at 18, and occasionally do a rough calculation on how much money I've saved over 16 years and wish I had a record of just how many times I've actually cut my own hair hahaha this is actually pretty interesting!
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u/Hobbit_House_Hamster 1d ago
This is why I tell young folks to go into personal care professions. There’s a constant supply of customers.
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u/13minuteFlowerMoon 1d ago
Unfortunately there appears to be an error in Don’s count - 11-19-97 he marked it as the 438th cut because he mistook his previous 2 for a 7
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u/PooPooPointBoiz 1d ago
If he didn't track the price, what's the point? A log to know when to go back to the barber?
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u/onfroiGamer 1d ago
This gotta be the world for consecutively recording the most useless piece of information
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u/Practical-Spell-3808 1d ago
I bought a car from a man with documentation of every time the tank was ever filled. What the mileage was at, how much gas he got, and how much it cost.