We both thought this sounded like a great idea, so, with developed photos in hand, I proposed, at the Historical Society meeting on Feb. While I was there, the subject came up relating to a possible donation of a few items of his barbering equipment. 22, 1992, to go over and take photos inside the shop. At that time, I was curator of the Brookfield Historical Society Museum in the Grossdale train station, and it occurred to me that some part of that barber shop might make a fine display in the museum. Yet, Bob’s Barber Shop was fated to exist for a short while longer. Painted on the window, below the unelectrified neon sign were the words “Bob … ‘Hairs’ to a Long Happy Retirement! Enjoy!”Īs if to make the message even more obvious, another “Closed” sign, making two in all, was set in the window, and still another one dangled in the doorway. Fiala gave the last haircut in the shop to his son, Douglas. The neon sign in the window saying “Bob’s Barber Shop” may have glowed for just as long a time, but now it was shut off, and the “Open” sign in the window was turned over to “Closed” for the last time. For over 50 years, a barber shop had been at this location, under the ownership of two Bobs. I don’t want any more smoking.’ The guy went out, and then came back in with no smokes, and told me he was a damn fool for smoking in the first place.”īob Fiala ran his barber shop, now paying $208 a month rent, until Feb. “I got rid of the ashtrays in the shop in the mid-1980s. Tony Sedivy said ‘When you put the plug in there, put a little rubbing alcohol in there, too. One day in winter 1968, the pole hole froze on me. “A man measured the pole hole with a micrometer and then came back with a machined pop-up aluminum bar plug. “In early 1968, when they poured the sidewalk, I used a wood dowel, but it swole up, and I couldn’t get the flag pole out,” Fiala said. The freestanding flag, flying from a pole set in the cement sidewalk out front of the barber shop, became a familiar sight during all the years Fiala was in business. I thought, ‘I’m displaying this flag to honor servicemen, and I’m keeping it up.'” If you have any problems, call us.’ It made me proud. If you have any problems, call us.’ Then the Veterans of Foreign Wars called me up and said, ‘We got a call. In a little while, someone from the American Legion called me up, and said, ‘I hear you’ve been having trouble displaying your flag. I told him, ‘This is the American flag, and it can stay there. ‘Who the blank owns this blank flag?’ he asked. “One summer day, a guy came up, barefoot, and with overalls on. ![]() “I always flew the flag out front,” Fiala added. I took the towel off Chief Barcal and the boy ran. ![]() “‘Do you want any pies? I can steal some, the pie door is open,’ the boy told me. ![]() “Some kid came in and had noticed that the rear door to the Westfield Dairy Mart was open, for a pie delivery,” Fiala said. ![]() Sometimes Fiala had breaks in his normal daily routine, such as when Brookfield Police Chief Edward Barcal was in one of the chairs and was covered up with a towel. The next year, 1968, Fiala “had a lot of fun, helping out with the Brookfield Diamond Jubilee, and even joined the Brothers of the Brush,” sporting a mustache and beard for the celebration that summer. Charlotte Siebert, who owned the entire building since the days of Siebert’s Drug Store (1926-45), charged Krafka $75 a month rent during the 1960s, and Fiala became her new tenant. Then I worked at Bob Krafka’s.”įiala continued barbering for Krafka until December 31, 1967, when Fiala signed the papers and bought the business from his boss. After that, I apprenticed at a few different shops”Mike’s Barber Shop in Westmont, Bill’s Barber Shop on Harlem Avenue in Riverside and one in Congress Park, at the Dunning Barber Shop on Ogden Avenue. Today, Fiala recalls that “it was a six-month program. Bill, Fiala went to barber school at the Moler Barber College, at 11 S. There, among his other duties, he gave buzz haircuts to patients in the Contagious Disease section of the hospital.Īfterwards, taking advantage of the G.I. He went on to Riverside-Brookfield High School and then was drafted for 14 months.įiala served during World War II in the Medical Corps at the 107th Madigan General Hospital at Fort Lewis, Wash. Gross, going from kindergarten to eighth grade. “He lost a few houses during the Depression, and the only one he managed to keep was the one at 3734 Harrison.”īob Fiala spent his schooldays at S.E. “Dad built bungalow homes at 33 Sunnyside, 3734 Harrison and on the 3700 blocks of Raymond, Madison and Arthur,” Bob Fiala recalled.
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