James Friday & His Simple Clip
I walk by a small, brick building on Gilbert Street every night. I notice the reflective front window illuminated by reds and blues coming from an old barber shop pole to my left spinning on and on. Old italicized text yells “Friday’s” on the front window. Inside the tiny shop, two barber chairs, a cluttered potted plant, and one old fashioned cash register. I would later discover that potted plant is 35 years old.
I would normally never insert myself in a barber shop. I go to salons, where the cut is overpriced and I pour out my heart to my hairdresser. Something about Friday's intrigued me though, like an old antique shop or ice cream parlor might. When I stopped to ask if Jim Friday had time for an interview a week from now the pregnant pause in action marked a female walking into his brick walled building, or maybe it was nervousness of five people being in the 15 foot business. Two young men sat in waiting chairs, one in the barber’s seat looking happy to be in James’ presence, and, with a mustache trim at 2 bucks a pop, how could he not be? There have been no appointments made in 49 years at Friday’s Barber shop, and my interview was no exception. “I’ll be here 8-5, but I can’t set aside time to do it!”
Jim Friday has been cutting hair for 51 years. After barber school in Des Moines, an 18-month apprenticeship, and working as a barber for three years in Iowa City, he purchased 'Oscars' from it's previous owner and renamed it 'Friday's'. That was 1969.
After seeing Friday's model cars Sophomore year of high school, Friday's long time barber told him to think about barber school. “I said 'well why? I don't know how to cut hair.' And he said 'that’s got nothing to do with it', he said, 'you can make your hands do what you want them to do.'"
I asked Friday if he considers himself an artist. "You have to be. I don't stop looking at his haircut until I cant see him no more. If I see something when someones walking out the door, he gets back in the chair and I finish it.”
Does he consider himself a therapist? “Dont…get into that. I’ve helped some a little bit..but I don't try to get into that field. I hear a lot of things. I’m not a gossip. When someone tells me something, personal like that, it goes in one ear and out the other. I don't even care to remember it.”
Friday's wife of 51 years embroiders for a hobby, sometimes for craft shows in Bloomington, Illinois. "She's gotten off into Orchid's now. That's fairly new."
They met on a blind date in 1966, set up by Friday's female cousin. “I dated her there…never dated anyone after. Her blind date didn't turn out so good”.
I asked him what his secret was, to be married for 51 years. "Just been busy. I don't know where the hell all those years went."
“I’ve tried various things. Believe it or not I even had plastic up there and it didn't do as good a job as that cardboard right there!”
"I like owls. They show so much character."
Friday collects Crossley cars. He has 12 currently. "I used to have a 60 passenger school bus I bought, turned it into a camper, then I cut the back off of it and made it a garage for my crossleys. I hauled that all over the country. that made 13 or 14 trips to Ohio alone."
“I have a few girls. They don't wanna be pushed by beauty shops to get a lot cut off.
I have several ladies that have gone through cancer treatment. They're the ones that I've helped psychologically."
"I had an aunt, she had cancer. She had heavy gray hair, solid gray. After she had her treatments she had lost all her hair. I kept kiddin' her tellin' her it was gonna come back, it was gonna come back just like when you were a kid. I said not only is it gonna be curly, but it's gonna be dark again. And when it came back, which it always does, it was dark.
And she had waves. She was so tickled I can still hear her laughing about it. She lived another four or five years, then somethin' else got her."
"Take care of yourself!" Friday yells after Jessie, a regular at Friday's. Jessie drops some change on his way out, "Any money that hits the floor is mine!" He says laughing, "Stay outta trouble now!"