I believe the Wardrobe Dept. was in a vacant factory in Mansfield. It was very busy, and I noticed a couple of people ripping jeans and distressing them in an almost assembly line style. I was directed to another part of the building where there were several wardrobe people running around and measuring people, then they would disappear into massive racks of clothing and reappear, telling someone to try on a pair of pants like I had seen the other people distressing on my way in. The shirt that the wardrobe lady gave me to try on was one of the tan and gray pinstripe shirts that the inmates wore in the early part of the movie. I realized then that the people making this movie were paying attention to every detail even before the filming started.

I was then given directions to one of the barber shops that Castle Rock had contracted with to give all the extras the 1930's haircut that was seen in the early part of the movie. I knew that I would have several inches cut off my hair at that time, but it was a good reason for a change anyway, so the anticipation wasn't too bad. There were several guys at the barbershop I was at who had whole ponytails and many, many inches of hair cut off who seemed a bit shocked, but were o.k. with it. However, there was one man who left the barber shop and refused to get his hair cut. After this incident, the time I was waiting seemed to "draw out like a blade" as the character of Red would say in the movie. I began thinking of the fact that I was losing most of my hair AND my beard. I knew of several guys in Upper Sandusky who had refused to pursue being an extra based on this very same issue. Then I thought of the dissapointment it would be if the movie for some reason (budget cutbacks, or whatever) would never really be made. All of this sacrifice would be for nothing! For a second or two, a part of me almost joined the man who had left the barber shop in disgust at how short they wanted to cut his hair.

But before long it was my turn. I walked in one of the back rooms of this old barbershop and saw hair everywhere on the floor. A LOT of hair! At that point, I realized I was there on my own freewill as a part of the whole experience, and took a seat in one of the massive burgundy colored vinyl barber chairs. We actually had a choice of crew cut style haircuts to choose from, but they honestly looked the same to me, as did everybody else who was exiting the barber shop that day. I literally closed my eyes and picked one. In about 10 minutes I too was exiting the barber shop, driving toward the sunset home to Upper Sandusky with a new crew cut sure to gather stares and heckling from friends and family. But it didn't matter, because by now I somehow knew that this was going to be a very special adventure.