OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA — You can look too close.
You can try too hard to find the history in a place, the old paint on a brick wall, the signs that speak of long gone, two-bit stories.
If you do that kind of thing at Debbie and Pat’s Barber Shop you might miss the more obvious and better stories cutting hair right in front of you.
“What’s it like in here?” asks a visitor.
“Fun,” replies owner Debbie Shiflet.
She took over this small, corner shop from another barber in 1989.
There’s a lot of traffic that still walks or drives past on 25th Street in Capitol Hill.
“It’s a place where people can come and feel comfortable,” she explains.
She talked her little brother Patrick into joining her about twelve years ago.
“We got a lot of good people who come through here,” he says. “It’s kind of like a family.”
Patrick is the one who brought in all the stuff that lines the upper shelves and adorns the walls of this place.
People still walk in off the street, regular customers who want their hair cut or people like Herman Kirkwood who just comes in to talk.
“We get to talking about anything and everything,” says Herman. “And the customers get involved too.”
It’s a throwback shop with a pretty basic premise.
Hair grows steady and every 3 to 6 weeks people need it cut.
When Debbie got here the price for a Clipper Cut was $5.
It’s still $5.
“It’s a short haircut,” laughs Debbie.
“It doesn’t take very long then,” remarks a shop visitor.
“No,” she replies.
The Rifleman still plays in the early afternoon on the old TV.
Patrick still gives a lot of flat-tops to the working guys who don’t want to mess with their hair very much.
There are three chairs, but Debbie an Patrick are comfortable the way it is.
History and story present themselves where ever you look.
The good conversations are free.
