Charlie’s barber shop is gone. Marijuana stores as Lakeview Cannabis, on Mimico Ave., is among the many popping up in the community. Photo by Tom Godfrey.
By DAVE KOSONIC
Many requiring a trim relied on barber Charlie Sabia to do the job at his barbershop located at the Burnhamthorpe Mall near Renforth Drive.
Charlie would likely be surprised if he discovered that his former shop is now the home of the Blackstar Cannabis facility that is one of many new marijuana shops in Etobicoke.
The barber was one of the originals at this mall where he cut hair for about 35 years. He retired from barbering a few years ago.
“It is midnight in my life,” he told me as he explained that he was not renewing the lease for his shop at the west end of the plaza.
But Charlie had no need to apologize because he was aged 85 when he set down his barbering scissors for the final time. He earned his barber’s license in his native Italy when he was 16 years old and worked steadily until his retirement.
Charlie had hundreds of customers that came from all over Etobicoke because his patrons knew he would cut their hair to match their personal preferences.
His English was tilted and he would say: “I will cut your hair how you want. You have to wear it. I don’t”. If a customer wanted to sit quietly and relax while Charlie coiffed hair he respected his client’s preference and remained silent.
On the other hand patrons who wanted to talk knew that Charlie listened to every word. “What you tell to me nobody else will never know,” he would assure me if I told him some secrets while seated in his barber’s chair.
Charlie took public transportation to and from work daily which was more than an hour each way he commented. He wore a blue smock while barbering but was always dressed in suit tie and the works when travelling to work or returning home after a day’s work. He was a sharp dresser.
Charlie told me that each evening he and his wife shared a bottle of wine during dinner which always included original Italian-style pasta mixed with seafood prepared by his wife. Charlie would then giggle and add that that he never worried about drinking and driving because he never drove a car and didn’t possess a drivers’ license.
I have no way of contacting Charlie and I hope that he is still enjoying his well-deserved retirement with his wife at his side. A couple of other barbers subsequently took over Charlie’s shop after he departed but both gave up ownership because good old Charlie just could not be replaced.