Eads still clipping after 50 years

A serious accident - one he wasn't involved in - changed his career path.

But Les Eads has never regretted it for one second.

Eads, who as a young man in Redkey was certain he wanted to be a mortician, changed his mind when faced with the reality of death and injury and instead set off on a path as a barber that is 50 years and counting.

Eads, also known to many in and around Jay County as the long-time radio color man for WPGW radio broadcasts of high school basketball and as a Portland firefighter (a position from which he retired in 1990), celebrated his 50th anniversary as a barber on Oct. 4.

It has, he says, been a great 50 years.

The best part? "Meeting the people and working with them. It's marvelous. The conversations are terrific ... I've had nothing but terrific people over my 50 years. People are really, really kind to you," says Eads.

Eads, like many barbers and stylists who cut hair, says there's something about sitting in that chair that encourages conversation - a conversation that's often one-sided.

"In racing season, you get a lot of people that like racing and want to talk about it. When basketball starts, you get armchair coaches ... and come tomorrow or Tuesday, you're going to get stories (from the NFL games over the weekend). Last week, everybody wanted to talk about how the Colts stole one from New England," says Eads. "It's different topics every day, all the time ... I have to say that in my career ... I've had several people that you can get a lot of conversation out of (in the barber chair), and yet you meet them on the street or see them somewhere else, they hardly talk. You name it, it's talked about. Of course, there's gossip, too," he says with a chuckle.

Eads, a 1958 graduate of Redkey High School, trimmed his hours several years ago after a health issue, but he is still in the shop at his West Main Street home on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. "I still want to do something ... I'm too active to sit down and be a couch potato."

When he first began work as an apprentice barber under Russ Frakes at a shop in Redkey, there were about 25 barbers around the county - including 19 in Portland and more than one in Dunkirk, Redkey, Pennville and Bryant. That number has dwindled to six; four (including Eads) in Portland, and two in Dunkirk.

Times began to change in the late 1960s, in what Eads calls "the Beatles era. The long hair started. Barbering started slowing down, and that was part of my decision to go for the fire department job." He took a short break from barbering after joining the Portland Fire Department in December of 1969, but resumed after four months and continued barber work on off days until he retired from the fire department in 1990.

In his early teens, Eads had made up his mind that he would be a mortician. But it was a decision that would change one summer afternoon between his sophomore and junior years at Redkey High School.

While Eads was working a part-time job washing cars at a local car lot, an Indiana State Police officer stopped by to chat.

"All of a sudden he got a call on his radio to go north on (Ind.) 1 to a serious accident. He turned to me and said, 'Les, follow me, but be careful and don't try to keep up with me. I might need your help.' The crash was at the second crossroads north of Redkey (then county road 140; now county road 400 South)," says Eads. "There was a vicious crash ... and there were six or seven injured and it was one bloody mess. I helped a little bit; I helped load a couple people in the ambulance. After it was all over with, I got to my car and tried to start it but I couldn't. I got out of my car and vomited ... That there is the reason I changed my mind, because there was a barber (Frakes) that had been trying to get me to go to barber school and work with him."

Eads enrolled at International Barber College in Indianapolis in the fall of 1958, and one year later, on Oct. 4, 1959, began working in Frakes' shop in Redkey. One year later, Eads moved to Portland, where he cut hair at a shop operated by Eldon Miller. After 10 years with Miller, Eads struck out on his own. He has been cutting hair in his home-based shop for the past 39 years.

Eads says that although his 50-year career has been relatively non-controversial, there have been times when the wishes of parents have conflicted with those of their sons. He says he's done his best to keep everyone happy.

"There are times over these years, that sometimes I'm put in a spot," he says. "There have been times that mother would come in and want it done this way, and the son didn't want it done that way. When they got older ... I did it the kids way."

He has been on the front lines of the long hair battles waged by kids and parents over the past 40 years. "The past five or 10 years, anything goes. Anything from long hair to a butch haircut with everything shaved off," Eads says.

Although he is seldom asked to do it anymore, Eads prides himself on his ability to do a flat-top cut.

"Back in 1959, if you couldn't cut a flat-top, you didn't want to be in the barber trade ... if it wasn't for Russ Frakes, I wouldn't have known how to cut one. The thing that Russ taught me ... was to cut that guy's hair and to please him to the utmost ... do it, and do it right the first time. When the barber's pleased with what he's done, the customer will be."

Many local basketball fans are well aware of Eads' passion for the sport. He kept meticulous records from every basketball game that he broadcasted, and several years ago he donated a large amount of memorabilia from local high schools to the Jay County Historical Museum.

But Eads also has had a love of auto racing from an early age, although go-karts were the only motor vehicle he actually raced.

Eads, who has been to the last 48 Indianapolis 500 mile races, has sat in the same seats on the fourth turn since 1970.

And the Indy 500 isn't the only track he's visited. He says he's been at virtually every track in Indiana, along with many in western Ohio, southern Michigan, and northern Kentucky. "I've been around racing since before I could drive a car," he says.

With no plans to get out of the barber business, Eads says his profession has provided a lifetime of memories and friendships.

"What pleases me, is when you get a new customer and you get acquainted with him and learn how he wants his hair cut, you've got a customer for life. I'm still cutting people's hair that I've cut for more than 40 years."

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