Photo by Mike Lamb Drew Laleman, left, an d Roger Bell give customers haircuts inside the Sportsmen's Barbershop in Marshall on Thursday.

I’ve been wanting to check out the Sportsmen’s Barbershop since I arrived in Marshall 10 years ago.

I recall my dad taking me to the local barbershop in Neenah, Wisconsin, when I was a youngster. I only remember my dad talking about sports with the barber.

Later, while working in Barstow, California, I frequented Carl’s barbershop. He was very entertaining with all his stories, and his customers shared a lot of town scuttlebutt.

On my walk to the post office or the bank, I would pass the Sportsmen’s Barbershop often and always took a quick peek inside. On Wednesday, I finally walked inside and was quickly greeted by Roger Bell, who immediately directed me toward the wall. A listing of all the barbershop owners since 1937 when it was established was displayed in a hanging frame.

It listed Buck (Coy) Norton as the first owner from 1937-1942. It was called Buck’s Barbershop back then.

Hal Hixon was owner of Hal’s Barbershop from 1942 to 1972. And Bell took over in 1972 and operated the Sportsmen’s Barbershop 1972 until 2012. He was partners with Dale Boerner from 1974 to 1985. While Bell still cuts hair in the barbershop today, Drew Laleman took over operations in 2012.

I asked Bell to share his story on becoming a barber.

“I come from Luverne, Minnesota,” Bell said. “Surprisingly, I cleaned Buck’s Barbershop down there. And I forgot he lived up there originally. So I came to town in 1962 and worked for Mel Schmidt. And that was on a deal I could buy into him. Well, Mel said, ‘No, I’m not selling.’ ‘What’s the deal?’ He said my son Craig wants to do it. So Craig took Mel’s place. Craig was killed in a motorcycle accident outside of town here.”

Bell said he did eventually work in Marshall under Hickson and then bought the shop from him. Boerner then worked with Bell until he went back to the cities.

I then asked him, why barbering?

“Well, I was working scrubbing floors and snow shoveling down in Luverne. And it was cold, and I thought, man, these guys are getting a buck twenty-five for a haircut. You could do four haircuts an hour. That’s five bucks. And it’s nice in the wintertime, cool in the summertime. That was good money back then,” Bell said.

While cutting hair in Marshall, Bell said he was making as much as the chief of police back in 1968.

“And now haircuts are 20, 25 bucks. And you go to Mankato or the cities, they’re 40. I never thought I’d ever see 20,” he said.”The only thing about it, you don’t have any sick days. You can’t get unemployment and you get no paid vacation. When you are not behind the chair, you’re not making any money.”

And you are on your feet a lot, I told him.

“When I came to work here, Hal Hixon said, ‘get rid of those shoes.’ So I went to wingtips. You know, floor shine, very good for all that. I wore them for quite a few years and I went to western boots. But basically, right now, I go to the cheapest shoes on,” he said

Little did I know before walking into the shop, I was going to learn a little Marshall history.

“What has changed more than anything is we used to go the Minnesota Cafe where Fuzzy’s (Bar) is right now and the Marshall Hotel and you would have all type of business people in there. Most of the policemen. You would know every policeman by name. And that doesn’t happen now,” Bell said.

I asked him to share some juicy barbershop-type stories with me.

He started out telling me about at one time there was a lot of head lice going around. And then he told me that recently he found a wood tick on one of his customers.

“It wasn’t buried in, but we also got to look to make sure you got the head,” Bell said.

But then he got to the good stuff.

“I cut hair in nursing homes, hospice,” he said. “One guy, the daughter called in and cut his hair in the bed. And then the ambulance is there. Took him and he died two hours later.”

“Matter of fact, one time I was cutting down here at Rehkamp (funeral home) and old Joe Rehkamp standing there. I said, ‘hey Joe, can’t you complain a little bit?’ ‘Why Roger?’ I said I never cut this guy’s hair without him complaining about something.’ He laughed,” he said.

Laleman wasn’t working the shop when I walked in on Wednesday, so I returned on Thursday so I could talk with him.

Bell recalled when Laleman first started at the shop.

“When he came in here, hair down to his shoulders. Could barely see his eyebrows,” Bell said of Laleman.

“The first thing they told me when I went to barber school, ‘are you gonna convince someone to get a haircut with all that hair?’ Laleman said. “Then they cut my hair and told me it will grow back.”

Laleman then took off his baseball cap off his head revealing a bald spot on top of his head.

“And look,” he said. “They lied to me.”

We all laughed. Even the two customers sitting in the barber chairs getting haircuts while we chatted.

I wanted to know about the talk of the town gossip that his shared by customers.

“It’s kind of touchy,” Bell said. “Some people are far left and some people far right. Surprisingly, the number of people that like Trump, but they don’t like when he talks. And then there are some people that don’t want anything to do with him. And now you got (New York Mayor Zohran) Mamdani. Really strange.”

Laleman said he enjoys the discussions while cutting hair.

“Hang out with people. Talking, trying to solve the world problems. Getting nowhere,” he said. “Sometimes it can get touchy. Politics, life in general. You got to tread lightly.”

I enjoyed both visits to the barbershop and plan to return when my gray hair needs some cutting and trimming.

Maybe I’ll get to hear some of that “touchy” discussions. Never know, might lead to some interesting news leads.