Pottstown barber is retiring after 55 years
Pottstown barber is retiring after 55 years in business
“I never had a day where I didn’t want to come to work. They have always been good days. As my own boss I didn’t have somebody telling me what to do. I didn’t have any of that in my 55 years. It was a real pleasure for me to come to work. That, I will miss.” — Neil Gazzillo, owner, Spat and Slipper
There aren’t a lot of people who can say they have been in the same career for 55 years.
Meet Pottstown’s Neil Gazzillo — owner of the Spat and Slipper barber shop and salon at 79 Charlotte St. Gazzillo, who is 77, has been a barber since 1962 — working all but a few months of his career in Pottstown.
After 55 years spent barbering, Gazzillo is hanging up his clippers, selling his business and retiring.
Gazzillo had expected settlement on the property to happen Sept. 1, but that date has been pushed back — to Sept. 15 he believes.
It will mark the end of what Gazzillo said has been a happy career.
“I never had a day where I didn’t want to come to work.
They have always been good days,” he said. “As my own boss I didn’t have somebody telling me what to do. I didn’t have any of that in my 55 years. It was a real pleasure for me to come to work. That, I will miss.”
He added that he will also miss the camaraderie he has with his customers.
“I never felt like I was going to work,” he added.
Gazzillo was born and raised in Phoenixville, and when he graduated from Saint Pius X in 1958, he immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
“I graduated in June and by July 4 I was in the Navy,” he said. He got his training in Oakland, Calif., before being stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Gazzillo said he was trained as an ear, nose and throat technician while he served in the military.
“Basically it was like the present day physician’s assistants. We were taught to help in the operating room, scrub for procedures, taught to do all kinds of tests,” he said.
After he got out of the Navy in 1962, Gazzillo said he looked to turn that training into a career, but he would have needed to get his nursing license first.
After trying a couple of jobs, Gazzillo turned to barbering, something he had considered when he was in high school. Several months after graduating from the Arena School of Barbering in Norristown and getting licensed, Gazzillo made the move to Pottstown — and the rest is history.
One of Gazzillo’s early Pottstown customers was Leonard Raychild, who owned a barber shop on Charlotte Street. Raychild hired Gazzillo, but passed away soon after. Gazzillo took over operations, eventually buying the business and renaming it “Neil’s Barber Shop.”
Raychild’s shop was by appointment only, and it’s a way of working that appealed to Gazzillo.
“You have more control. You can arrange your work
schedule. It is however you set it up,” he said. “You know who is coming and when they’re coming. It’s a great way to work. I’ve been totally spoiled.”
When the Spat and Slipper became available about a block down Charlotte Street, Gazzillo bought the business and moved his shop there, buying the building three years later. That was 29 years ago. The “Spat” portion of the business was the barbershop; the “Slipper” was a beauty salon.
There was a time when
Gazzillo worked six days a week in his barbershop, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Many of his customers were workers in Pottstown’s manufacturing plants.
“I would start at 7 a.m. because I got those coming off third shift, up until about 11 a.m. Then I would have the second shift people coming in and they would last until about 2 p.m. and then at 3 or 3:30 you would have the a.m. shift getting off work. It was a steady flow,” he said.
Things slowed down, as Pottstown’s economy changed and especially as some of his long-time customers retired.
“As long as people were working, they had standing appointments. When people retired, they come when their wives tell them they need a haircut,” Gazzillo said with a laugh.
His schedule for the last year or so has been Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Wednesday afternoons and all day Friday as needed.
Gazzillo is selling the shop to Mike Howell, owner of Like Mike’s Barber Shop in Phoenixville, and a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty — Limerick.
Howell said the shop will be a second location for Like Mike’s Barbershop and will be a unisex barbershop/salon.
“We’re excited about 79 Charlotte Street and look forward to bringing a thriving business back into the Pottstown community,” Howell said.
He added that there are plans to renovate the property. He doesn’t yet have a grand opening date.
Along with the building and business, Howell is buying most of Gazzillo’s collection of barber memorabilia, including a towel warmer from the early 1900s.
Gazzillo said his family — wife Barbara and their three sons — have been talking to him for a couple of years about retiring.
Now that he’s made the decision, Gazzillo said he’s ready. He has already put an application in with the Southeast Veteran’s Center in Spring City, to do “whatever they need me to do.”
In addition, he plans to continue to cut hair for some of his long-time customers who can no longer leave their homes.
He plans to spend time with his family — which includes seven grandchildren, wants to play some golf and said there are lots of places in the U.S. he would like to see.
“I know there’s a ‘honey do list’ and it’s pretty big. It won’t get done all at one time,” he added.