I have begun to fall victim to that thing most men dread … male pattern baldness.

To say begun isn’t quite accurate though. I have been feeling its effects for nearly 10 years only recently it is getting harder to recognize myself from behind.

My dad has been nearly bald my entire life and yet somehow I thought I would be different. I am so much like my dad in every other way, I even laugh like him. I imagine that my grandfather laughed the same way.

My grandfather died when I was very young and I have a few fuzzy memories of him. What I can recall is that he had ghost white hair rimming his head a few inches above his ears and a shiny giant forehead that started above his eyes and went up the middle of his head and ended at the back just above his ears. I also recall that my dad and grandfather didn’t have the easiest relationship.

Probably when my dad was young he didn’t want to be like his father. I heard my grandmother say many times that my dad was just like my grandpa. My mom and wife now say the same thing to me.

My son is just as stubborn and hard headed as any Barry man before him and has a head full of reddish blonde hair like his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and every other Barry man that emigrated from Ireland.

They are hard-working men with a determined spirit to make the most out of this life and leave something worthwhile behind. My grandfather was a contractor and built homes all over Orange County, California that stand to this day, he taught his sons and daughters the value of a good name and a hard day’s work. My father served in the navy and worked for a school district and taught his boys everything he knew, most of those things he learned from his father.

Every day I see more of my father in me and lately I’ve started seeing him, at least what looks like him from 20 years ago. What’s left of my hair isn’t gray yet, and I almost have my grandfather’s forehead. That’s something else I can pass down to my son.

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Paul Barry is the managing editor and can be reached by email at paul.barry@vicksburgpost.com or by phone at 601-636-4545 .