‘Barber Shop Quartet’ is a family affair

Recently while waiting my turn for my monthly haircut at Matt Polkovitch’s All Ohio State Memorabilia “Buckeye Barber Shop,” an interesting story was about to unfold. A family of four were ahead of me, Atty. John Laczko of Struthers and his three sons Chad, 8; Jared, 6, and Chance, 2. I sat next to the boys’ mother, Theresa, who was supervising the cutting results.

I asked the names of her sons and when she said “Chance” I was taken aback, since in my 831⁄2 years I had never heard that first name. She explained that the name came about when she and her husband were hoping for their third child to be a girl, but were still very happy when their “last chance” baby boy was born on Valentine’s Day 2005.

Childhood memories

When Matt put the booster chair in the huge barber chair and propped Chance in it, memories of when I was about Chance’s age flashed across my mind. I sat in such a booster seat. Chance braved the ordeal admirably, to the point of dozing off a few minutes.

Also reflecting on the Great Depression time period, a favorite returned to me, “Shave and a Haircut Two Bits.” The only problem was that most of us didn’t have the quarter.

My father placed a bowl on my head and used a hand clipper to give me a haircut. I bought just such a hand clipper at a garage sale as a reminder of our hard times.

Some years ago my long time barber Tom was about to retire, so I decided to try a hair stylist. Going back to Tom one last time, he said, “Mike, you know the difference between a barber haircut and that of a hair stylist? About 10 bucks.”

After about 10 years of stylist haircuts, I am back in a barber shop chair where it all began.

X Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and inductee into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.