Around Town: Barber Shop...

Just down the block from Allegory Gallery there's an old-fashioned barber shop.  It even has a Barber's Pole!  As I mentioned yesterday, I really appreciate good signs and business markers.  I love how iconic a barber's pole is!  It does have a gruesome history though.  Apparently barbers were also once the local surgeons and dentists (in the Middle Ages).  The stripes on the pole signify bloody bandages, the globe is a euphemism for the bowl the leeches were kept in, and the pole itself is a symbol of the staff patients would cling to during painful surgeries!  Eek!

Sometimes I'm glad that many of these symbolisms are whitewashed and forgotten nowadays.  It makes it easier to just appreciate the mechanical sign.