"IT'S A SMALL WORLD"

BY ROBERT STEBBINS

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PETTY'S BARBERSHOP REMEMBERED

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     From 1985 until 1988, I was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Korea.  It was my last job before retirement from the Department of State.  In 1986, I received word that my stepfather was seriously ill in California, so I hurriedly made airline reservations to return to the U.S. as soon as possible.  The Seoul Embassy in those days was one of our largest.  And, based on the amount of travel generated by our large number of embassy personnel, Northwest Airlines almost always upgraded our tickets from coach to business class.  Northwest gave the government a good deal, and the airline graciously provided the upgrade at no extra cost, as it was long trip to the West Coast.

     Upon my departure at Seoul airport, the clerk at check-in told me that business class was already full.  However, she asked if it would be OK to put me in first class.  Who was I to refuse?  So, I and three other passengers went into first class, and the remainder filled business and coach.   The Boeing 747 was almost completely full except for the first class section.  First class contained about 20 seats, of which only four were occupied.

     The airline clerk had given me a boarding pass that seated me next to another man.  Although there was the option of spreading out, sitting anywhere, and curling up for a nice sleep, I chose to occupy my assigned seat.  So, we took off and after getting settled, he and I began to talk.  He was probably in his late fifties or early sixties, and I was about fifty-three.  I told him that I worked at the embassy in Seoul, and he told me that he lived in New Orleans and had been in Korea, checking on a deep-sea, offshore drilling platform that a shipbuilding company was constructing for the oil company for which he worked. 

 He asked where I came from in the U.S., and I told him that I had grown up in Eastern New Mexico, Clovis.  He said that his family originally came from Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle areas, but that he had lost track of them.  He said that his dad had a brother who probably was still down in that area, but he didn't know where.  So, I asked him what his uncle did for a living, and he said that he was a barber.  I asked what his uncle's last name was...and he said "Petty".  I asked, "Angus Petty"?  And, he said yes, that Angus was his uncle.   He was truly surprised.  I told him that both my dad and I were customers of Angus in Clovis back in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  Wayne,  Angus' son, joined his dad in the barbershop after graduating from Clovis High School, but by the mid-1980's Angus had passed on.  

     However, the next time that I visited Clovis in about 1988, I dropped by Petty's barbershop on Mitchell next to the City Hall, got a haircut, and told Wayne how I had met his uncle strictly by happenstance on the airplane from Korea.  We had a nice talk and rehashed good memories.  Wayne had been one year ahead of me at Clovis High School, but we were good friends through our association with the Clovis Wildcat athletic teams.  

I believe that Wayne passed on a year or so after I talked to him. But, I am still amazed at the chance circumstances that just happened to piece together this experience, which is still vividly etched in my memory.  I have often wondered about the numerical odds of that happening, and in retrospect probably should have played the lottery as soon as the plane landed.  

---30---
FOR MIL'S PLACE
ROBERT STEBBINS, CHS '51
2/28/14