On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

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Disclaimer: these recollections are as accurate as my fading memory will allow – please feel free to e-mail me any corrections or additions. ‚ÄúGetting your ears lowered‚Äù was what my father called going to the barber. The first place I remember getting a haircut was from Lionel’s Barber Shop in Ball Square. We lived on Pearson Avenue, so it was a short walk for my father and his two young boys. Lionel would put the booster on the seat and we’d take turns getting our wiffles – I later graduated to a flat-top which required the ‚Äú butch stick‚Äù to make the front stand up.

It was great when I was finally able to go to the barber by myself, although it had it’s drawbacks‚ĶI remember after the Beatles burst into our lives and my father saying to me: ‚Äúnow go back and get a REAL haircut!‚Äù

I used to love the smell of the barbershop. I think it was that stuff in the long bottles that emitted the great aroma Рand later it was a strange and sweet though pungent scent that emerged from the “back room.”

When Lionel disappeared, Artie Ardolino’s Barbershop turned up next to Todi’s Sub Shop in Ball Square – we got our haircuts there for a while until Artie left and Phil Rontondo took over the spot. If you had been there with a video camera running, I’m sure the goings on in Phil’s would have been a hit sitcom – you never knew who you’d see in there and it was always sure to be a colorful character or two.

You might have called the show ‚ÄúThe Usual Suspects‚Äù or ‚ÄúThat Old Gang of Mine.‚Äù When you came to ‚ÄúFast Phil’s from Winter Hill‚Äù you didn’t come for just a haircut – you came to socialize. I understand that Phil did pretty well with Florida real estate and today has his charter boat license.

Later in his life, my dad got his haircut at Alibrandi’s across from the old Western Junior High – Tony is a great barber and a pillar of the community. My current barber is John DeVito in Medford – I go there for advice on life and a good haircut. It’s great to see Dente’s Barber shop still thriving in Davis Square, too.

All these barbershop memories bring to mind a haircutting incident that was traumatic at the time, but humorous now. Does anyone else remember the Ronco “trim comb?” It was a plastic contraption that looked like a barbers razor that had a blade in it. The TV commercial made it look very simple to give someone a “trim.” NOT! After buying it at Woolworths or W.T.Grants, I took it home and tried to give my brother Joe a haircut. Can you say “bald spots?” He had four patches in his head that had bare, white scalp showing. The poor kid was a mess. So what could make matters worse? He then tried to cut my hair. I was lucky because I only ended up with two bald patches. We both had to wear hats for a long time until our hair grew back. I distinctly remember throwing the “trim comb” off my back porch in disgust.

Barbershops are more than just a place to get your haircut. It’s a place to look at magazines, watch TV and talk about sports or life in general with your barber. I even went to ‚Äúhair stylists ‚Äú for a while. Pepe in the Square and Janice Marino in Medford did a nice job during that era.

I’ve gone the complete gamut with haircuts. The wiffle, the crew cut, the flat top and yes, the shag. The shag haircut should not be confused with the mullet – a shag is just long hair, but much longer in the back, with no ears showing. Once the ears show, well my friend, what you have is a mullet. The Shag was 70s rock n’ roll star hair. You would see Dave Stefanelli wearing his rock n’ roll mane proudly as he drummed for his band Zenophon. I had a pretty good head o’hair myself – my old band pictures prove that. Some of us still try letting our hair grow to that style today. So what if it makes you look like Larry Fine – he was a great actor. Letting my hair grow allows me to hold on to some scraps of my youth.

I never thought I’d live to see the day that my son’s hair was longer than mine – the picture of me that appears with this column is three years old‚Ķthe hairstyle has been called by some creative online readers ‚Äú the cereal bowl‚Äù and ‚Äú the melon head.‚Äù It’s all good. I have a large collection of hats that will be utilized if my hair decides to slip away.

As we get older, it’s not only the hair on top of the head that needs trimming – it’s too bad we couldn’t stop the hair from growing in all those other places and re-direct it back to our heads – where it belongs.

You can email Jimmy with comments directly at jimmydel@rcn.com