After 60 years behind a scissors, Jerry Brose is retiring on Wednesday, May 31.
"If you love your job like I do, you’ve never worked a day in your life," said Brose.
Even with that much experience, the 85-year-old second-generation Annandale barber didn’t quite match his father Bill, who put in 65 years.
"He started earlier than I did," said Brose with a laugh, adding that his dad continued working until age 82.
In age, at least, Brose outlasted his dad, and he even exceeded his own expectations about how long he would continue working after he sold his business to Aaron Seiffert in 1999.
"When he sold the barbershop he told Aaron he was going to retire at 70. What a joke," said Brose’s wife Dorothy.
Almost two decades later, Brose finally decided to hang up his smock, but the decision still wasn’t easy.
"I can still cut hair. I just can’t go up there and put in a half day anymore – my arms, my legs, my back - it’s time," he said.
Seiffert said the extra years with Brose have been good.
"He’s a great guy to work with," Seiffert said. "It was helpful having him."
Not a planned career
Brose’s father Bill had begun working as a barber in Annandale in 1927, but following in his father’s footsteps was not initially part of Brose’s life plans.
"I saw dad struggle many years with the barbering," Brose said. "Haircuts were 15 cents when he started and it was 10 cents for a shave, or any two services for a quarter. And there were three barbershops in Annandale. He just struggled."
The Great Depression years eventually gave way to World War II, which pulled many men away from town, and by 1943 Brose’s father, who was not called upon to serve in the war, decided he had to do something different. He went north to work on the Alaska-Canadian Highway.
"He was in a camp with I don’t know how many men, and he was the only barber. He cut hair until midnight every night," said Brose. "He sent home this little box with money. That really helped out."
By the time Bill returned home and the service members began to return as well, business prospects were much improved.
"In 1950 when I graduated things were good. But there were some lean years with dad for many years. I know I ate a lot of spaghetti," said Brose.
After high school Brose went to work for the state’s grain inspection department, but two years later he and a few friends made a spur-of-the-moment decision to join the Navy. He worked in navigation on the famous battleship U.S.S. Missouri, and saw action during shore bombardment missions in the Korean War.
During his service years from 1952-56, Brose traveled from Korea to South America, Portugal and France.
"I went through the Panama Canal four times - saw the world," he said.
Barbering and Annandale
Eventually returning home and to his former work, Brose became frustrated over promotion practices at the state agency.
"So I said, ‘The heck with it. I’ll just go to barber school," Brose said.
Living in Crystal at the time with his first wife Barb and children, Brose went through nine months of extensive six-day-a-week training that included study on everything from basic haircutting to things like the body’s circulatory and digestive systems. On the side he cleaned a barbershop for $20 a week for extra money, and the GI Bill helped cover the cost of his education.
Following his training, Brose began working in February of 1957 at a shop in Edina. At the time, the going rate for a haircut was $1.25.
In 1963 his father persuaded him to come back to Annandale, but only after he and a second Annandale barber, competitor and friend Sport Roussau, agreed to stop working nights. At the time, Bill Brose and Roussau worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. most days, but stayed open until 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and 10 p.m. on Saturdays.
Brose bought the business from his father in 1963, and when Roussau decided to retire in 1967 Brose saw an opportunity to get rid of the rent payment for the building that is now the large extra room on the north side of A-Town Roadhouse. Brose bought Roussau’s shop, the same location where the Brose shop is still located on Main Street, and remodeled it from top to bottom.
He also invested quickly in the community, becoming a member at Zion Lutheran Church, serving as president of the Lions and as the commander of the VFW.
Old time shop
Brose and his father continued working together for 25 years until Bill’s retirement in 1987.
After working alone for years, Brose decided to seek out a partner and asked Seiffert’s mother what he intended to do after high school. Eventually it was arranged that if Seiffert went to barber school and earned his Master Barber license, Brose would sell him the business and stay on to help. That’s exactly what the 1995 AHS graduate did. He joined Brose in 1997 and two years later the business changed hands while keeping the Brose name.
"I told Aaron, this barbering beats working," said Brose. "I said, ‘There’s three meals a day, hopefully. It’s warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and maybe at the end of the week there’s enough to buy a pint of whiskey.’"
Seiffert said that as a customer he heckled Brose about being absent for hunting, and the next time he came in Brose had information about barber schools.
"Next time I came in he had that stuff to show me. It was either that or the military," said Seiffert. "I thought, nine months for school? Why not? I went to check it out and here I am."
In all his years, Brose never took appointments. All business came from walk-ins, and when he once surveyed his customers to see if they would prefer to go by appointments, many said they would go elsewhere if that were the case.
"The old boys liked to sit and visit. Now everybody is too busy," he said.
Brose occasionally did haircuts for women when he first started in Annandale, but for the most part the business is geared toward men.
"I am not a barber stylist, I’m a barber," said Brose.
When he started the business still did facial shaves as well, but the state eventually outlawed shaves due to blood-born diseases. However, Brose still does hot lather neck shaves and has persisted despite warnings from state inspectors.
One thing inspectors never questioned, however, was the neatness of his shop, and that continued a tradition going back to the Bill Brose days. In years past both Brose and his father wore dress shirts and ties at work, and while the styles have changed Brose still never went to work without a pair of dress pants on.
"Dad always said ‘If you’re going to be a barber, why don’t you dress up and look like one?’ I don’t think I’ve ever worn a pair of jeans to the barbershop," Brose said.
Aside from clothing, Brose said not much has changed in the barbering profession over the years. The shop even still does a lot of "flat top" haircuts that were popular back in the 1950s.
"Barbering is the same. Same equipment, but they don’t make it worth a rip anymore, like everything else," said Brose. "Everything is throw-away now. You don’t fix it."
While business remains strong, Brose said it’s no secret that old-time barbershops aren’t as common as they used to be.
"We can’t understand it. I married, raised for kids, Dorothy and I lost our spouses and remarried, and we’re still doing OK. I’ve had some very good years," he said. "It’s a living, but the kids just don’t want to take the profession up."
Passion for people
Another throwback feature of Brose’s career included numerous house calls for aging former customers located in numerous surrounding towns, and trips to the nursing home or area camps.
After working behind a big window on Main Street for so long, there are few people in town Brose doesn’t know. In fact, Dorothy said it seems like wherever they go, even out of state, Brose tends to run into someone who recognizes him.
"He gets up every morning and he enjoys going to work. He enjoys the people," she said. "He goes and has coffee with friends when he’s not busy. It gets him out of the house for a while. I don’t know what I’m going to do with him when he retires."
Brose rarely took vacation, aside from a few days for hunting and fishing, in his younger years, and more recently he stopped going to Arizona over the winters after four years because "I missed my people."
In retirement he plans to read history and westerns, and finally relax.
"After 60 years of the same routine it’s going to be tough," he said. "But I have no regrets. The barbering business is good, and Aaron is good, and he has a good following. I had that to begin with. My dad had it and I picked it up, and now Aaron has picked it up – generation after generation."
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