14 Comments
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Juni's avatar

I love this story! I can picture your dad's store just as you described.

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Jenna Park's avatar

I don't have any pictures, so I wanted to describe it as vividly as I could.

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Daphne Berryhill's avatar

Really enjoyed reading this memory of your dad and his store. What a cool experience! I came to Substack as a reader looking for interesting stories like these. Thanks for sharing :)

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Jenna Park's avatar

Thanks Daphne. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

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Jeanne's avatar

So poignant. It's always strange when I realize I'm the same age as a memory I have of my parent. I wonder what will my kids think of me? Side note: Your dad was really handsome

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Jenna Park's avatar

Isn't it? Our parents seemed so old to us then. How can we possibly be the same age??

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Anne Elizabeth Hawley's avatar

Jenna, I loved your story the other day about being left in the movie theater alone as a little girl. The section where you sat in the dark, then suddenly this wonderful movie Cinderella started up, made a marvelous metaphor for the act of writing. I shared with my writing coach and a bunch of my writing friends.

So to read this longer and wonderfully specific story of your father's wig store was a real delight. Thank you for sharing it.

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Jenna Park's avatar

Oh, thank you Anne! I love that you connected writing as a metaphor. Thank you for sharing that.

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Nora's avatar

What a lovely piece Jenna, I remember reading the original back on your blog, it stuck with me because a wig shop really is an unusual occupation :-) not too many of them about where I live. I love the way you evoke New York at a particular time also - I'm a similar age to you and often think back to how a place looked and felt in a particular decade - yes! I'm able to look back over "Decades" now, yikes!

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Jenna Park's avatar

Yup, decades. We're at that place now!

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Angie's avatar

Love this piece so much, Jenna. I hope someday you’ll write a book about your life!

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Jenna Park's avatar

Hey, thanks Angie ❤️

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countless _acts's avatar

I love that photo and story! A time when people dressed up! There are many wig factories in Korea, I think that's how Koreans had business in wigs and beauty supply things. My mom told me that my aunt used to grow her hair and sell it for extra cash in the 1960s/1970.

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Jenna Park's avatar

yes, it was a popular export business during that time. This is how/why my dad got started. Immigrant Koreans here in the US held a sizable share of the hair industry back in those days.

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