The Dawgs and the Story Behind "Lint Head"

All I could see was a mountain between me and Athens.

It wasn’t a roadblock with a detour sign. It was an honest-to-goodness “Road Ends Here.” I had been accepted to the University of Georgia, and I really wanted to go, but I couldn’t see a way forward.

At 17, I didn’t understand it. I had worked so hard at being the good student, getting the best grades to ensure a path to college. I had received the “Yes,” but the wallet was empty. As a first-generation college student, my family had no concept of things like student loans or federal grants.

I needed a solution that would get me to college as quickly as possible, and for me, that solution was cosmetology. (You can read about how that decision came to be by reading my blog post: Sandy’s Hair.)  I learned to cut, color, perm and style hair, passed my state board examination and in short order started work at a little beauty shop in my hometown.

The Ladies and Gents Beauty and Barber Shop was its own little world. Oh, I felt the stares and the judgment. I couldn’t ignore them, but I had a goal in mind: college. I would find a way to make this work, and I did.

Many of our patrons were textile mill workers who lived in and around a nearby mill village. My coworkers — all women old enough to be my mama — were funny, full of personality with a whole lot of life experiences. I listened to their stories. I watched them interact. I took it all in.

I didn’t recognize it at first, but I was doing research. One day while making sure one of my regulars would look her best for Saturday grocery shopping and Sunday church, I heard one particular story about the 1982 World’s Fair. I knew I would one day take that story and turn it into a book. It took forty years, but I did it.

That book is Lint Head, and it has been recognized by the Georgia Independent Author Association with Author of the Year honors in the literary fiction category and the GIAA Spotlight on Georgia Award for fiction. If you haven’t read it, you can get your copy in my hometown, Rome, Georgia, at Cecil T’s Mercantile and Dogwood Books. If you prefer to shop from your phone or laptop, you can order it from Amazon.