MARILYN HAGERTY: Salon serves body and soul

Dear Sheila Stevenson,

You told me once that all you ever wanted to do was to fix hair. You went directly from high school to beauty school in Grand Forks.

You landed at Kato's-the beauty shop that was for so long downstairs in the former Dacotah Hotel in Grand Forks. And now, it is so hard to believe you have had your own shop in East Grand Forks for 20 years. That was quite a celebration with redecorating and prizes.

Time marches on. And so do you! It's hard to believe you just finished celebrating two decades running Salon East in Central Avenue Plaza.

I marvel at all the personality and stamina it takes for cosmetologists like you to stand on your feet day after day and keep smiling. I marvel at the creative ability you all have to shampoo, style.

Then you go home and garden, cook and can. And I know you and Tim occasionally hop on the motorcycle and go whizzing around the countryside.

I am not sure people in your line of work realize how much a careful, creative hair styling does for the psyche of your customers. You and Nikki Larson and all the others who do styling at your Salon East are pretty down-to-earth people. You know what the weather forecast is. You know the latest news of Greater Grand Forks.

You know how the crops are faring in the nearby beet fields. And you have funny stories about your kids and grandkids.

I guess that's the reason some of us don't need a psychiatrist. We just slide into a chair at your shop-and many other shops-where the conversation turns to real life as we live it.

There are some things I take to the Lord in prayer. There are other things I take to your beauty shop. Someone around there always knows where to buy the best paint or how to plant flowers. You know what kind of lotion to wear for sun protection.

And you seem equally at ease chatting with men who have been dropping in for haircuts for years as you do with women who want colors, streaks, cuts and even permanents.

So I just wanted to say congratulations for being cheerful every day-whether you feel like it or not.

Your friend, Marilyn, who always needs a cup of coffee and finds your cookies good, too.

P.S. I hope you realize this is Syttende Mai. Our Norwegian friends have been cooking up a bunch of blotkake at Gyda Varden Sons of Norway here in Grand Forks. If you don't want blotkake, you probably can have some riskrem, rommegrot or flatbrod. It all goes well with lefse. There's lunch and afternoon coffee. And over in Thief River Falls, they are celebrating Norwegian Heritage all week long.