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Time to see the Butche…er I mean Barber!
My Kindergarten School Picture.
When I was growing up, haircuts weren’t like they are now, or at least not around home. Till I got a little older, most haircuts were done at home with scissors and an old electric clipper. The only other real option those days wasn’t a salon, it was a barber.
The only barber that I know of back how was Power’s Barber shop in the old Shopping Center back in Clarenville. Was just over from the CO-OP if I remember correctly, and unfortunately had a big glass window so you were on display and doubly unfortunately was next to the bulletin board so there were always people stopping and though not necessarily looking in, making a self conscious boy feel like they were.
Like many doctors, dentists, butchers, and barbers in those days, gentle was not a word in their vocabulary. Going to Power’s meant having your head yanked every which way, clippers and scissors wielded by someone who could have been Freddy Kreuger’s Great Uncle.
Later on, a salon opened in back of the old drug store in the same shopping center. Though that was really the “new” drug store. The old drug store was down near the fork where memorial and marine drives split. Not far from the old police station. But that’s another story.
One of the stylists there was Carol-Ann something, she opened her own place in the old Pop Shoppe building later on. I forget the other ones name, tho I preferred to visit her for as long as she was active and I needed a hair cut.
But for the longest time, we only had Power’s or our own wiles. Usually a professional cut was only done for special occasions when I was really young, though, as you can see by the picture, a professional cut may as well have been a butchers cut as a barbers. I can’t say that I ever felt Power had any talent for cutting hair. I remember mom saying he nearly butchered me! Even had my ears nicked and bleeding.
Maybe it was a rite of passage? I don’t know, but luckily its now past!
Raised in outport Newfoundland in a town of 65 people, I pursued a post secondary diploma in Information Technology right out of High School.
I’ve always been a geek at heart, but yet I love the rural life I grew up with. Fishing, hunting, camping and the great outdoors are still loves of mine, even if I don’t pursue them as often as I once did. Sports were always a big part of our lives, and I played many (badly) and loved them all.
I will Remember Gotta keep em cool!
3 thoughts on “Time to see the Butche…er I mean Barber!”
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School MemoriesBy Barbara Smith Barbara wrote the following for a heritage site I was trying to get going. Unfortunately wasn’t getting interest, so I shuttered it. The post is still useful and insightful though! Back in the “really” old days, when dad (Hay Smith) was school age, the school in Aspen Brook had …- Randall’s StoreWhen I was a boy, Bax and Eli Randall had a store on the road in around the harbour in Shoal Harbour. I even remember an old gas pump outside saying something like 35 cents a gallon, though it wasn’t operational that I can recall. The store had pretty much …
The Pop ShoppeOver the weekend, my buddy Bernard and I were discussing a memory of growing up in pretty much anywhere in small town Canada. For people of my generation, a trip to The Pop Shoppe was a fun and regular occurrence. Unlike traditional pop, and before the time of so many store …
My First barber was My father, and a very good one was He, everyone around our area would come to have their Hair cut , Children, Men and Women, usually it was for free but some times people would give him a Quarter or less. that was until I was in my early teens, and by that time (1957 or so) we did have a professional Barber , That was Lewis Strong I remember my first trip there I got a flat top, or a brush cut can’t remember for sure, but I was Pleased with it anyway. .. Oh Yes I don’t think You should Put all the Blame on Your barber for Lousy hair Cuts, Judging from Your Picture I would say You were a squirmier. Oh Yes when My father (Eph Balsom) Cut hair there wasn’t any Electric Clippers, there were only hand Powered Clippers , Comb and sissors .
Lol yeah i will always remember powers barber shop. I used to hate it when people would walk by the sidewalk and glance in through that big window lol
Yeah, it was a huge plate glass, not like you had any privacy!