By Don Bradley
Right off the bat, the man settling into the barber chair felt the need to explain himself.
While running a hand through his hair.
“I know, little early, could’ve waited another week or so, but now I can get in again before you close,” the man told barber Julie Ellis, who owns the place.
Here’s a man who looked in the mirror, checked the calendar and did what he did because he hates to see the barbershop close.
Lot of that going on with longtime customers of Main Street Barber Shop in Grandview. After more than 50 years, the old barber shop will soon sweep up the hair, tell a last joke, show off one more big tomato and turn off the lights a final time.
Last day: July 27.
“Rent’s gone up, lot of things have changed,” Ellis said at the back chair. “I think a lot of men are getting their hair cut where their wife gets her hair done.”
She paused, then added: “It’s just time.”
Up at the front chair, barber Frank Kenney has spent nearly 50 years at Main Street in two different locations.
“When I got the place 17 years ago,” Ellis said loud enough for Kenney to hear, “Fred told me I had to keep him on because he was grandfathered in.
“We played off each other a long time. He watched my kid grow up.”
Kenney nodded. “It’s the end of an era.”
Stories of old-fashioned barber shops closing all over the country are not hard to find. Some use the term “fading institution” in talking about how men (yes, mostly younger men) increasingly want a “salon experience” — styling, detailed cuts, manicures, even hair coloring — all to a Top 40 soundtrack.
Other stories, however, talk about how barber shops remain key components of neighborhoods, depending on socio-economic factors of wealth, race, jobs and age.
Main Street Barber Shop operated at another location in Grandview before settling in the bottom of a two-story brick building at 713 Main Street.
A day last week, Kenney was finishing up a longtime customer who talked about how you can get a good haircut at lots of places.
“But warm, friendly service and good talk is a different thing,” the man said. “You get all that here and I’m going to miss the place.”
When Kenney graduated barber school he looked all over town for a job, but bigger shops turned him down because he didn’t have a “following”, meaning a customer base.
So, he took a job in Grandview and has been there ever since, a half-century, making a daily commute from midtown. For him, he’s done. He’ll stay busy but says he’s done cutting hair.
Ellis is moving to a barber shop in Belton and hopes her longtime customers follow.
For both, it’s finally their time for “next.”
“It’s been quite a ride,” Kenney said.