Two-tone Toni

Two-tone Toni was one of my fellow classmates at the university I attended in southern Ontario. He was an immigrant from Lebanon. He was over six-feet tall and he wore roller skates the whole day through. This was at a time when inline skaters hadn’t even been conceived. Toni would skate throughout the university campus, engineering faculty buildings, up-and-down stairs, even along the rows of the auditorium.

Toni’s hair was died two tones of red in a bizarre Iroquois cut, or punk cut. This trend, like the roller skates, was well before its time. Toni was a young Iggy Pop, with middle-eastern flair.

Toni’s looks and lifestyle rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Yet, he wouldn’t back down a bit. I asked him what his parents thought of his haircut. I presumed he wore his hair like that as an act of rebellion. He paused for a moment, as if considering whether he would honour me with an answer. Then he quietly, seriously, told me that his father was the one who had cut and died his hair. His father was a hairdresser.

That conversation gave me more insight into Toni than all our previous encounters. He told me there was a scheme to his madness. He knew he was different than the majority of staid conservative southern Ontarian engineering students; he just wanted them to know as well.

Our university program was a co-op program. We alternated every four months between a study semester and a work semester. At the end of every study semester, companies, large and small, would come to interview students for next work semester. It was a madhouse of back-to-back interviews, if you were lucky to get interviews, or a sad scramble to cough up even one interview if things went wrong. The competition was fierce for the jobs available. Some students didn’t find job, and were pitied by all.

When it came to the first round of interviews, most of my fellow students predicted that Toni would be included in the unemployed group. They stated their prediction with glee. Finally, two-tone Toni would be taken down a notch or two.

On the first day of the interview rounds, we all gathered together at the campus centre. Most of the fellows were looking nervous and uncomfortable in their polyester suits. In walks Toni. Chic urban look: Armani suit, silk tie, short haircut. One tone of hair. He looks as if he just stepped out of a GQ magazine. Everyone stopped talking and starred.

When asked whom he was interviewing with, Toni mentioned a top engineering company in Montreal. One of those choice positions, usually given to more senior students. Tone went in to the interview and grabbed the job right from under everyone else’s feet.

Two-tone Toni taught us the importance of living your life according to your terms. He also taught us about choosing your fights and how do go on the offensive.