By Rodney Richey, Herald Bulletin Feature Writer
FRANKTON — When Jack Melling locked the door on his barber shop Friday, it was for good.
After 60 years.
The longtime owner of Melling’s Barber Shop retired this week. A party in his honor is set for 11 a.m. today at the shop.
It is a well-worn, comfortable, familiar shop, right out of an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Only there were no strippers in Mayberry.
“He had a girl come in, and we think somebody sent her in,” said the Rev. Al Covell, retired minister of the Frankton Christian Church. “Because she took her top off.”
Covell paused, then snickered naughtily.
“And he cut her hair.”
Melling, now 81, and his lone employee, son Andy, were closing up when the woman came into the shop, a drink in her hand from a nearby tavern.
The woman sat in the chair and, as Andy Melling prepared to cut her hair, she said, “Do I have to wear this sweater while I get my haircut?”
Andy answered, jokingly, “You don’t even have to wear your bra, if you don’t want to.”
That’s when the woman, a stripper from Marion, pulled off sweater and bra. Jack Melling quickly closed the window blinds.
“I’ve been doing this for over 50 years, and I’ve never had anything like that happen,” Melling said Wednesday, laughing.
Jack’s by the Tracks
One imagines Melling’s raucous laugh has punctuated many a conversation wherever he has plied his trade. His current shop is on Sigler Street, but his first Frankton location was Jack’s by the Tracks, in 1961. He began barbering in 1949, in Elwood.
“When I was young, I became part of the Jack’s by the Tracks crowd,” said Tom Hervey, 62, account executive for Entercom Radio Group in Indianapolis. He has been commuting every three weeks to get his hair cut by Melling.
“He’s just a remarkable guy, he really is,” Hervey said of Melling. “I’ll sit in the barber chair, and he’ll say, ‘Now, you know this person, don’t you?’ He knows everybody.”
One of those people he knows is Covell, a fixture in the shop and a foil for Melling’s jokes.
“He has provided me with free coffee and cookies,” Covell admits at one point.
“If I wrote up a bill on him for coffee and cookies, it’d be $20,000,” Melling cracked.
“Oh, yeah, they’re a riot,” Hervey said of the good-natured bickering between the two. “I think Al Covell, when he goes to heaven, will probably be rewarded, because he’s gotten Jack to go to church. A lot of people probably lost money in Vegas on that one.”
“I believe I’ve got him straightened out,” Covell said soberly.
“After 30 years, you should have,” Melling retorted.
Fading Americana
Farmer Doug Drake, another longtime customer, said that, while jokes were welcome, foolishness was not.
“Over the years, kids would come in there,” Drake said. “And if they weren’t acting right, he’d say, ‘Now you act right, you be a gentleman or you go home. And don’t come back.’”
One customer, Bob Stafford of Stafford & Son Tree Service, was taken aback when told Melling’s was closing today.
“He’s not gonna be open anymore?” Stafford asked incredulously. “It’s gonna be a big loss here in town.”
Melling looked back over the past half century or so:
• “Hair really changed in the ’70s. It got real bad, because nobody was getting haircuts.”
• “When I started out, it was 50 cents a head and 25 cents for a shave. It’s $10 now, and we don’t even do shaves.”
• “You used to keep customers for years, the way ball teams used to keep players. That don’t happen anymore.”
“It’s a bit of Americana that’s fading,” Hervey said.
“Just like any small town, I think you need a nice barber shop,” Drake said. “It’ll be missed.”
Melling claimed that he wouldn’t miss the work and might even enjoy retirement alongside his wife of 53 years, Irene.
“But I’ll miss the guys,” he muttered.
Melling’s voice began to hesitate, and his eyes grew red and tear-filled.
“Gettin’ kind of sentimental now,” he said before trying to deflect attention.
“Al and I have had a lot of fun. Since I’m the only sinner in town, he works on me pretty good.”
Belying that jibe is a truth: Melling has visited hospitals and nursing homes, all to help customers who can’t stop by anymore.
“I’ll miss the people. And I probably will miss the work. I don’t know.”
Then Jack Melling grew quiet again. Slipping down out of his barber chair, he reached behind him to grab a tissue and dab at his eyes.
Composing himself, Jack Melling kicked his feet up onto the rest and considered for a moment.
“I’ve been pretty lucky,” he said, looking down. “I’ve looked forward to putting the key in that door every morning.”
Contact Rodney Richey, 640-4861, rodney.richey@heraldbulletin.com.
