Last year, my barber of over fifteen years passed away. He took great pride in running an old fashioned barber shop and was in business for over fifty years. He was definitely someone you’d consider to be an old school, no nonsense type of guy. Many of his views offended people in the community. For example, he was anti illegal immigration despite being an immigrant from Mexico.
Considering that his shop was in a bad neighborhood, his prices were surprisingly high. $18 to be exact the last time I was there. He once told me it was to keep out the rough cholos who use bad language. They would think the prices were too high and stay away from his shop.
I have a friend that I went to Junior High with who got his hair cut from him for a while. However, my friend was beginning to not like the way he was cutting his hair. So while in the shop my friend threatened to go to a salon instead. And my barber told him ‘Men who get their hair cut at salons are gay’. My friends reaction was like fuck that. He ended up going to a salon after that. As many people learned he was the type of guy that if you ever crossed him, he would never cut your hair again.
One time a woman walked into his shop. She sat down in his chair and told him she wanted a haircut. He told her ‘Ma’am there are many places that cut women’s hair but this is not one of them’. Yet she stayed in the chair and repeated her request for a haircut. So he ended up calling security.
He was not in the shop the last time I got my haircut before he died. In broken English his assistant told me that I had just missed him. He had left five minutes ago because he had pain in his ribs. I was thinking I hope by rib pain he doesn’t mean chest pain. Anyway, in the shop the front door was always propped open to get a cool breeze inside. As I was getting my haircut, out of the corner of my eye I saw something small run through the front door coming towards me. In that split second moment I thought it was a squirrel or small cat. When it finally ran by in front of me, it turned out to be the biggest rat I’ve ever seen. Long gross tail and all, it was a true ghetto rat the size of a cat.
The rat ran into the back bathroom area of the shop and his assistant had his back turned at the time and never saw it. There was another guy waiting to get his hair cut and him and me just looked at each other sheepishly and tried not to laugh. The whole rest of the haircut I was trying not to laugh and stay steady. All I could think about was his assistant finding the rat and shooing it away with a broom.
I called him about a month before he died. By this time we were well into the pandemic and I was wondering when he planned on reopening. He just did not seem like himself during our conversation. He was stuttering and fumbling over his words. One day I was in the neighborhood and so I paid a visit to the shop. Inside some of his family members were cleaning and I got the news of his passing.
RIP Old Friend