Thanks for chiming in everyone! I clearly didn't give nearly enough information for folks to be able to help me out properly... sorry about that!
However I think I have a pretty good feeling for how to assess the situation now so your responses were helpful!
So, road bike, front tire, old skool 25mm with tubes, so lots of pressure, got some miles on it. My conclusion 'replace'.
Then, I looked again and realized the 1mm slice I was remembering was from the tube... the tire has a huge gash! So even less question in my mind now...
Thoughts?


PS. For the guy that thought I was yelling at the bike shop I was just trying to add emphasis and didn't see the italic option.