Join Housing Works for the End of a (Ponytail) Era
Posted by , February 22, 2010 at 9:49am
Since the mid-80s, Charles King, co-founder and CEO of Housing Works, has sported a trademark long ponytail. As we come upon the milestone of Housing Works’ 20th year, we’re putting the ponytail on the chopping block for the highest bidder (who so far is Pastor Rick Warren). Come celebrate the ceremonial cutting at the Shear Madness event tonight, and stay for food, drink, and fun at the Housing Works Bookstore Café. Charles is currently blogging until the big cut.
I am a little concerned about this blog thing. For a month now, I have been writing a blog, almost daily, about Haiti. My fine editor, Housing Works Communications Director David Thorpe keeps cutting out sections of my writing saying they are too self-referential. “The last think people want to ready,” he says, “is a self-indulgent blogger.”
Now, he has given me this assignment to blog about my impended hair cut and how I feel about it. How much more self-indulgent could one get? (Let’s see if he doesn’t try to edit out this introduction.)
Anyway, here goes—Me and my hair. The story is that I have always been partial to long hair. My very conservative father believed that a woman’s hair was her glory but considered it shameful on a male. Being a navy vet, he was quite partial to the buzz cut. I preferred my mom’s treatment. She always left just enough on top that if you really slathered on Four Roses Hair Oil, you could actually see signs of a part…but just barely. If my father could grasp enough to pull it, it was too long.
When I left home one of the first things that I did was to let my hair grow long enough to cover my big ears. A visit to the barber every six months or so was enough for me even after I became an ordained minister. I actually thought I looked kind of dashing.
In the mid-80’s, the AIDS epidemic caught up with me. After burying more than two dozen parishioners, I decided I had to come out of the closet. That, of course, meant resigning my position as associate minister at Immanuel Baptist Church and giving up my career. Even the most progressive Baptists at that time weren’t looking to hire gay ministers.
I went to driving school during my last six months at Immanuel. Fulfilling a childhood fantasy, I learned to drive a tractor trailer, getting honors in parallel parking, backing straight and docking. But Ronald Reagan had deregulated the industry and jobs had dried up. I ended up working as a bus driver, doing charters. My CB handle was “Preacher Man.”
During my year of driving buses, I decided to go to law school. I got wait-listed by Yale, Harvard, and Columbia, and outright rejected by NYU. Fortunately, I was offered a full scholarship at Cardozo, Yeshiva University. I was moving to New York City!
I had three very close roommates in New Haven. They were all Yalies and good lefties. It was bad enough that I was going to law school. That and business school are the true signs that a lefty Yale undergrad has sold out. But that I was doing it in New York? Sin, perdition and Wall Street!
To appease my friends, I took the vow: No haircut until I had graduated from law school and found employment. And that is the true story behind my long hair.
Stay tuned for more: Charles as Farah Fawcett, the secret of the pony tail, and much, much more.
To vote on Charles’ new hairstyle, or buy discounted tickets, go to housingworks.org/shearmadness.
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