THE SUCCESS OF MR. AL COLLOTTA

“...for the labourer is worthy of his hire...” (from Luke 10:7)

My haircut at Collotta’s Hair Styling last Saturday morning was a bittersweet experience.  The haircut came out well enough.  In fact, my wife said it was one of the best haircuts I’ve ever gotten at Collotta’s.  My hair was cut by Kelley, a new female barber who is (maybe) 23-years-old.  The “bitter” part was that I learned that Mr. Al Colotta, the founder of Collotta’s has retired due to health reasons.

Four weeks earlier, I suspected Al Collotta may not be back when there was another barber cutting hair at “Al’s Chair”.  At Collotta’s there are three chairs or barber stations.  At the far left is Al’s son Fred.  Fred is the businessman at Collotta’s.  He’s smart, serious, and tends to be very streetwise.  Fred DOES have a fun side, and I understand he really enjoys motorcycles.  At the middle chair is Fred’s younger brother Peter.  Peter’s a much more relaxed guy than Fred is, and just plain doesn’t take life quite as seriously.  Both Fred and Peter enjoy my sense of humor and “eccentric” personality as I call it, but I think Peter enjoys it more.  At the far right was always Mr. Al Collotta’s chair.  On the occasion of the haircut before my last, Al Collotta’s younger brother cut my hair.  I’d never met this guy before.  He looked like Al Collotta, only younger.  He was an interesting conversationalist, and a good barber, but he didn’t seem to have quite the same spark as his older brother.  This past  Saturday, I was surprised to see a young adult female at Mr. Collotta’s chair.  I really had no idea who she was.

“Would you like KELLEY to cut your hair?”  asked Peter.

I replied that was fine, and I introduced myself to Kelley, humorously telling her, “I’m an Assemblies of God minister, but don’t let that scare you because I’m also crazy.”

Peter burst out laughing, and added, “That’s accurate!”

I had a nice enough time conversing with Kelley, and with Peter, for that matter, but the absence of Al Collotta was hard to get used to.

For many years, I got my hair cut at Frank & Vinny’s in downtown Canton.  “Frank” is now dead, and I think Vinny is retired, although Frank’s son cuts hair there along with four or five other barbers.  Once in a great while, I will still get my hair cut at Frank & Vinny’s,but 90% ofthe time, I go to Collotta’s at Hartford and Concord Streets in Framingham, just a five minute walk from where I live.  I got my first haircut there around fifteen years ago.  It was in a snowstorm.  I really needed a haircut but I did not want to travel very far.  I’d hesitated to go to Collotta’s earlier because I thought it was such a classy looking “barber shop” that the prices would be high.  Actually, I found the prices were quite reasonable, and I became a regular at Collotta’s.

I enjoyed all three barbers, but I did enjoy when Mr. Al Collotta cut my hair.  He has to be one of the warmest and most personable people I’ve ever met.  I’ve never seen him in a bad mood or out of sorts with anyone.  I’ve never known his demeanor to be anything but optimistic. I always thought he sounded exactly like Paul Parent who is the gardening and plant expert heard on Sunday mornings on WTKK 96.9 (and some other stations, as well).  In the same way Paul Parent makes all of his callers feel good that they will be great gardeners, Mr. Collotta made you feel good about who you were and what you were doing.  You not only got a GREAT haircut, but you felt special because you had come into his shop.

There’s a word that Moe Howard of The Three Stooges would use when he and his two sidekicks had performed what Moe believed was an extraordinary accomplishment.  Moe would happily yell, “Success!”.  Some years ago when Mr. Collotta had finished my haircut, I said (the way Moe would have) “Success!”.

Al Collotta enjoyed that SO much that he wanted me to say, “Success!” every time my haircut was done, and so I would.

“I was WAITING for that,” he’d say happily.

Peter told me his father had taken several weak spells while cutting hair and that on one occasion they’d had to call 911.  The decision had to be made that 78-year-old Al Collotta could not cut hair any more.  No one can replace him, but Fred, Peter, and now Kelley are doing their very best.

I intend to mail a copy of this to Al Collotta.  This man is a great guy and a true SUCCESS of a human being!