If you happen to drop by the Orchid Island Barber Shop on Vero’s beach any Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday morning, chances are you will see one of America’s longest-serving barbers doing what he’s been doing for most of the past 78 years. His name is Vito Colaninno, and at age 87 his memories of the trade go all the way back to 1931, when he was apprenticed to a master barber at age 9.
“As soon as I finished school for the day, I would head for the barber shop and stay until it closed at 8 p.m.,” he recalls. “My job was to watch the barber cutting hair – learning on the job, so to speak. To pay for my training, I was required to strop the razors, clean the floors and toilets, and – a job I hated – wash out the spittoons.”
Maybe it was the spittoons that made Vito a fast learner. At age 12, he was promoted to cutting hair, and four years later purchased his own five-chair shop in the Bronx. He stayed there 20 years, with a time-out in the Army during World War II, where he was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge.
Read the entire article in the April 2009 issue
True Tails is a series written by Amy Robinson for Vero Beach’s dog lovers. Ask Amy about your dog’s behavior by clicking below.
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