Tantalizing Tidbits from the 1910 City Directory

Dusty D was reading the 1910 city directory and happened upon this strange pair of entries:

Hibbard Clarence M, florist, res 29 Race
Hibbard Henry A, mach hd, bds 29 Race

Now, it's interesting to see how much information can be distilled from these 2 laconic entries (there are no other Hibbards in the 1910 directory).

First of all: a florist living with a machinist? What's up with that? A male florist in 1910? Was this accepted, or looked on as hopelessly effete? Clarence!: who are you?

Second, Clarence apparently owned a home, or residence ("res") at 29 Race. not a rich part of town, but he still owned his home. How did a florist scrape enough $ together to buy a home?

Third, Henry A boards with him, or, gets meals and a room there. This suggests that Henry A is a child of Clarence. Often college students living with their parents are listed on old censuses as "boarding" with their folks. Perhaps Henry is Clarence's son.

Fourth, there are no women listed. Did either Clarence or Henry marry? If so, it's not recorded in the 1910 directory. If not, why not?

Neither man is listed in the 1905, 1924, or 1926 city directories that I have here at home. Pending further investigation in other city directories at the Archives, it's curious that they had such an apparently short tenure in Ypsi.

The florist and the machinist: what were their stories? Dusty D hopes to find out.