The Smetses’ home sits at the top of a tiny, steep lawn in Fairmount Park.From the time it was built in 1950 until Amy and her husband Duane bought it, the two-bedroom, one-bath house had a single owner.His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines that coincided with the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, made him enormously popular—and controversial.In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender.“If someone comes in here asking, ‘Can I get a rockabilly haircut?,’ I’m gonna say, ‘No, you can’t.’ I know they probably want a pompadour with sideburns, but…” Reynolds lets his bitter tone finish the sentence.Remember the rumble scene in The Outsiders (the movie based on the novel by S. Hinton), when the Greasers and the Socs let loose on each other in that big, wide-open field?That’s what I imagine takes place regularly at San Diego vintage shops.
Yes, he dresses in suspenders and saddle shoes, but he’s a “thrift shop” guy, and he has little tolerance for fads and trends.
Still, there’s little doubt that Smets would side with the Socs over the Greasers.
She is, after all, a pastor’s wife who is looking to bring back “the joy of being a homemaker.” On the other hand, her wrist tattoos and her love of Formica might put her a trend or two ahead of today’s housewife.
The folksy Western Swing sound of Pokey La Farge plays on the stereo system. Think Matt Dillon as Dallas Winston in The Outsiders — but take off the black T-shirt and put him in suspenders and a button-up. Kevin Grossman, working at the chair to Mark’s left, says (referencing the story’s plot), “And then there was that one time he burned the church down.” Again, everyone laughs, including the four clients that occupy the chairs.
He has a SIG Sauer pistol tattooed into the shaved side of his head. Reynolds tells an “I’m not a Soc” story about going out on a date with a girl a while back.