While he was getting his hair trimmed Darrell Smith reminisced with Chuck Petek about Petek’s “hair-raising” 50-year career as a barber in Grand Marais. In some cases Petek has cut the hair for three generations of Cook County men. As far as retiring, Petek said he has no intentions of putting his barber clippers away anytime soon.
There are no splitting hairs; Chuck Petek has been a barber for a long time. Fifty years ago this month he began his career.
And safe to say it’s been a long summer for Chuck.
“Merv Bowers got a hold of me and wanted to know if I would help him out for the summer,” said Petek, who a couple of weeks ago was cutting Marlo Larson’s hair. As Larson’s dark locks fell onto the dark smock that Marlo wore like a proud kindergartener who was getting ready to finger paint, Petek explained further.
“I grew up in Ely and married Joyce Kuznik, who was also from Ely. We have been married for 49 years. I attended the St. Paul Barber School, and when I graduated I know people in Ely thought I was going to come back home, but it never happened.
“Right out of school I worked in St. Paul for a short time, then I was asked to help a barber in Silver Bay.
“I’m not sure what happened in Silver Bay. I was filling in for a fellow who was in the service. He got out early, I’m not sure why, and got his job back. I got a call from Merv to come work for the summer, and here I am, 50 years later.”
When Chuck Petek leaves on a break for lunch or coffee he places a sign on his barber chair and heads either home or to Blue Water Cafe, the hotspot for coffee. Patrons come in and wait for his return, usually reading a newspaper or magazine while holding their spot for the next haircut.
Larson, a hard-working butcher for Johnson’s grocery store, refused to get his picture taken for the newspaper.
“Get Chelsea (Gunflint Mercantile owner who works in the same building and makes sweet treats). She’s a darn sight prettier than I am,” exclaimed Marlo.
And then Marlo started to laugh. “Get all three of us in a picture, and you will have the butcher, the baker, and the barber.” With a candlestick maker somewhere down the block, no doubt.
After Chuck had finished laughing, which took awhile, he got back to cutting hair. It didn’t take long to finish Marlo’s cut. Larson thanked Chuck and told him he appreciated all he does besides cutting hair, then paid and left.
It’s like that at Chuck’s. A lot of laughs, a lot of good conversation. If you want the pulse of the community, stop in and visit Chuck’s Barbershop.
Petek eventually bought out Bower, which was then located in the Arrowhead building. “I worked there for a number of years,” said Petek, trying to reach back and search through his memory to remember just how many years before giving up and shrugging his shoulders. Hard times came to barbering, though, and Petek closed the shop and went to work at Erie Mining, barbering on his free days and off times at his house.
“It was the days of the Beatles haircuts, long hair was in, and men weren’t getting their hair cut as often,” he explained.
After some years, Chuck got a partner.
“Jim Nelson and Jim Featherstone were barbering out of Shirley Olson’s building next to Grand Marais State Bank (now the Gunflint Tavern). Jim Nelson quit and went on to become a pilot. Jim Featherstone asked me If I wanted to work with him so I moved there. Jim’s marriage ended, and he moved to the cities. In 1985 Virgil Lindquist and I bought this building, which was a furniture store owned by Larry Ryden. I moved here to the front and Virgil moved his office from the Sven & Ole’s building to the back of this building.”
Petek spent 11 years working full time for Erie Mining, doing shift work at Taconite Harbor, in Schroeder, cutting hair on the side. During those busy years, Chuck and Joyce had two children, Darren and Anna Mae. Today Darren is married and living in Shakopee, Minnesota, and Anna Mae is married and residing in Palm Beach, Florida.
The late 1960s and 1970s were a different era in Grand Marais. “Lumberjacks, who lived in shacks out in the woods– would come to town and sometimes ask to borrow five or ten dollars. If I had it, I would lend it to them. They all insisted on giving me their pocket watches as collateral. I didn’t want their watches, but they gave them to me anyway. No one ever stiffed me. Everyone paid me back. The only time I didn’t get paid back is because a fellow died. I had his pocket watch, but it never worked. It didn’t matter. Never mattered. I miss those guys, I really do.”
As the years rolled by lumberjacks and fishermen, sawmill workers and miners, their numbers dwindled and retirees who moved here full time and summer visitors who live in the tourist park mostly replaced them.
“I have made many friends from the tourist park,” said Petek. “They come here and become part of the town, volunteering, shopping in our stores, helping out where they can. I can’t say enough about my summer friends.”
Chuck always has people stop in to say hi. He may not be there, but the door is always open. He places a sign on the chair when he goes for coffee or lunch. People are welcome to wait, read the paper or a magazine. They may not be there to get their haircut. Just to shoot the breeze. Talk about their lives. The good parts and the bad parts.
“Sometimes people need someone to talk to. I told my priest that I have listened to more confessions than he has,” Chuck said with a laugh.
Chuck’s equipment hasn’t changed over the years. He uses an Oster Classic 76 shaver, a razor, two expensive barber scissors, and an outline clipper. And while hairstyles have changed—he has given my son Mohawk, and Fohawk haircuts—“Gentleman haircuts have always remained in style,” he said.
Gentlemen haircuts are short on top and sidewalls on the side. I know. I got my first real haircut from Chuck when I was 14. He asked if I wanted a gentleman’s haircut. I said yes. When he was done, my hair was shorter than I expected. A lot shorter. It grew back. Fifty years later and a whole lot less hair, I still get my haircut from Chuck. The world might have changed a good deal in that time, but there’s something comforting about having the same barber who will patiently listen to your life’s story as he cuts your hair. You know he cares. He’s been there the whole time, for your father, for you, for your son(s). And the best part is, he said he has no intention of retiring anytime soon.
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