After 64 years, Algona man takes down the barber pole

ALGONA —

Lynn Pope once woke up in the middle of the night thinking about an eyebrow...

Earlier that day, the veteran barber had forgotten to trim one on a customer with a particularly dense pair. He called him in the morning.

"I cut one side and not the other," he said. "I woke up and knew that."

Pope, who has been serving clients as the sole barber at Lynn's Barber Shop for 64 years, retired Saturday and will close his shop, with its single, worn green-and-white barber chair facing the window onto First Avenue North.

The 89-year-old great-grandfather of 11 snipped his last brows, buzzed a few final stray hairs and lingered over haircuts that cost $5, plus a $1 tip.

When asked how he felt about closing the shop he opened in 1945, he said: "I don't know if I can describe it. It's better I don't talk about it."

Pope, once known for giving flat-top haircuts, has cut the hair of thousands, although he stopped giving shaves about a decade ago.

Working kept him healthier, he says, but he has suffered nerve damage in his hands that makes it hard to do his job.

He also recently sold the house that includes his small shop. He and wife Virginia, who passed away in the fall, raised their three sons in that same house.

On this last day, the wood-paneled shop still displayed the antlers of a blacktail deer that have been there since it opened, news clippings, scissors and combs, and an enlarged copy of his first ad from 1945: "Opening Algona Barber Shop; Friday the 26th; Next door to Alexander's Market, by Lynn Pope."

There's no sign outside, only a barber pole that spun when he was open for business.

Pope moved to the Auburn area to work for the railroad during World War II.

He grew up in Vader, Lewis County, in his mom's barber shop, and he opened his own shop in Algona shortly after the war ended.

In the beginning, he was open five days a week and charged 35 cents for a shave and 50 cents for a cut. And from day one, his business has been cash only.

Pope, who also had an insurance business, eventually cut his hours to two days a week. But he continued to talk insurance with customers who came from as far away as Enumclaw for haircuts.

On Saturday, Pope threw a navy-and-white polka-dot cloth over his old friend Dick Richards, 84, who has been coming once a month for more than 60 years. He buzzed Richards' neck with an electric clipper, cut his hair with scissors and comb, then brushed off Richards' neck and face before letting him step down.

For years, the barber shop has been sports central, where Pope talked softball, baseball and basketball with friends and customers. The walls are decorated with golf references, two pictures of former Mariner Freddy Garcia taken by grandson Wes Pope, and a picture of a 77-year-old Pope running a 12K race in Spokane.

The museum in Auburn has asked to have his barber pole. Pope will take tools and other items to the assisted-care facility in Auburn where he has been living with his West Highland white terrier, Sam.

He's keeping his mom's barber chair, which sat in the corner, and will keep cutting hair for friends and family. His green barber chair is going to a granddaughter.

"It's nothing to look at, but it's been good to me," he said of his shop.

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com