54 years cutting hair in Enterprise

Long-time loyal customer Mike Weideman of Enterprise trusts barber Don Martin to "make a new man out of him" at the Enterprise Barber Shop. Weideman said he has been coming to the shop ever since he moved to Wallowa County more than 30 years ago. Ron Osterloh photo

ENTERPRISE —Main Street Enterprise has changed quite a bit in the last 54 years, but inside the Enterprise Barber Shop, owned by Don Martin of Enterprise, much remains the same as when he started working there in March 1956.

Don received his training at the Portland Barber School from June to December 1954. After completing the program he went to work in Hermiston for a while and then returned to Wallowa to get married. He was hired by Enterprise barber Deb Fordice on the recommendation of another barber and longtime Wallowa County resident, the late Grant Sasser.

“I worked for Deb for a year and then went to Baker for three months. I opened a shop at Brownlee Dam in 1956 for a while, then I came back here and Deb sold me half interest in this shop so I couldn’t leave again,” Don remembers.

He said he learned to cut hair quickly in his shop at Brownlee. Customers would start lining up at 10 a.m. when the shop opened and he sometimes wouldn’t finish before 10 p.m. The more customers he could move in and out of the chair, the more money he could make in a day.

Haircuts cost $1.25 in 1955, Don said. He charges $11 now for customers over 65; $12 for the younger set. Longtime patron Mike Weideman of Enterprise was charged the lower rate but argues that he really should be paying the higher. Mike said he has been coming to Don for haircuts since he came to Wallowa County 30 years ago.

Don said it has been a pleasure to work on one generation after another here in Enterprise. He admits barbering is a different business now than it was when he started. His clientele is mostly the older generation now, but Don said he remembers days when the chairs that lined the wall were filled with young boys waiting for haircuts after school and on Saturdays. Some of those were not waiting for cuts — they had come to hang around, check out the Playboy magazines and listen to the “BS,” Don said.

“The Beatles about put us out of business, but I’ve outlasted them,” Don said. “I remember when two-thirds of the haircuts were flat-tops. It’s not that way anymore.”

The Enterprise Barber Shop is a “men-only’’ operation. Don said even though the real money is in cosmetology, he didn’t ever want to cut hair for women because “they’re too picky.’’ He said he remembers serving a female customer once and it didn’t go well. Don said a woman came to the shop thinking it was a beauty shop and wanted a haircut. She insisted, even though he told her he was not trained to cut hair for women. Don said she wanted it cut short, but not quite as short as it ended up.

Listening to people’s   problems and hearing the local gossip is part of the job. Don said that much of what counts as news around Wallowa County has already been heard and discussed at the Enterprise Barber Shop. Quite a lot of talk goes around at the shop, but “I’m not a part of it,’’ Don said. “I just listen. But these days I’m so forgetful, I don’t remember a lot of it. That’s not all bad.”

He affirms how fortunate he feels to have the folks in Wallowa County as customers.

Don’s barber shop has been located in the same building since it opened. The space used to be an alley between the Wilson Grocery and Mayfield’s Drug Store. The two property owners constructed a building there and rented it to Deb Fordice. Don said when he and Deb formed their partnership, he paid his half of the rent to Mayfield’s and Deb paid his half to Wilson’s. His rent is now paid to building owner Steve Lear, who receives $10 dollars more from Don than the previous owner did. Don said it was his idea to pay more; he thought it was probably worth a little more now than when he started in business.

One of the things that changed on Main Street was when the truck route on North Street became the major artery to River Street and Highway 83. Before that time the traffic was directed onto Main Street and joined the highway at the corner of Main and River streets. There was much more foot traffic back then, Don said. People stopped and shopped at the stores on Main Street and he had 10 to 20 customers a day and was open six days a week.

“It’s slower than the devil this time of year; a lot of my regular customers go south for the winter,” he said.

Don does a steady business on most of his open days even though there is no waiting line.  One of Don’s customers said he thought he could make it through the winter without a cut, but was getting too shaggy. ”Cut it short and part it high,” were his directions.

Don’s services haven’t changed much over the years, however. He still offers tonic treatment and a shave with a straight razor. The mug of soap and soft brush to work up a lather still sit on the sink by the barber chair. Don strops the razor on a length of leather attached to the side of the chair. He says not many barbers give shaves anymore and no one he knows uses a straight razor. Most of the shaves he gives now are for hunters getting cleaned up before they head home, he said.

“I do it to stay in practice. It sure as hell isn’t for the money,” he laughed.

Customers to Enterprise Barber Shop can watch John Wayne movies on the small screen placed high on a shelf above the original cash register used by Deb Fordice when the shop opened. The gold painted register is artfully wrought and embellished in a way that the current high-tech computerized registers have left behind forever. Don said he retired the antique machine, valued at up to $1,500, when Deb died and he took over as sole proprietor of the business.

Don said his wife cuts his hair these days and she’s good at it. “She should have been a beauty operator herself,” he said.