Farewell after 50 years

BROOKINGS — After more than a half century, Bob Melmer is officially hanging up his comb and scissors.

A retirement party for Bob is planned for this Friday, May 29 at the 9 Bar in Downtown Brookings from 4 to 8 p.m. All current and former customers are encouraged to stop in and say hello.

“We should have prime time there so folks can come and go but we’re not fighting any crowd too badly,” Melmer said.

Melmer, now 73, has been cutting regular customers’ hair by appointment only since closing The Razor’s Edge, his spot on Main Ave., a couple years back.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease five years ago and has gradually had to pull back from work since then — first going to appointment-only and now retiring altogether.

“I just can’t work full time anymore,” Melmer said. “My body talks back to me, and that’s what it’s saying.”

Parkinson’s is a long-term, neuro-degenerative disease that attacks the central nervous system, and among its chief symptoms are tremor and difficulty with balance. Muhammad Ali famously battled the disease — and Harrison Ford currently plays a character battling the disease on Apple TV’s critically acclaimed “Shrinking.”

Melmer said his chief symptoms thus far are simply pain and fatigue, and long days on his feet simply aren’t in the cards anymore.

“I have some stretches I do, and those help, but it’s just getting to be too hard,” he said.

Rural roots
Melmer almost wasn’t a barber at all. Growing up in Geddes, South Dakota — population 156 at the 2020 census — his father owned the local grocery store and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.

“My dad had a grocery store there, and he tried to sell it to me, but I wanted no part of it,” Melmer said. “I can remember being a kid in Geddes and the doorbell would ring on Sunday, and somebody, one of the customers would need a gallon of ice cream, they got surprise company, so we’d have to go down on Sunday, unlock the grocery store, sell them a gallon ice cream. That’s just what you do. That’s just what you do.”

Instead, he went to barber school, and turned up in Brookings — he remembers the exact day, July 10 of 1973, when he was 20 years old — and went to work cutting hair in John Bennett’s barber shop downstairs and across from the post office — 426 1/4 Main Ave. at the time.

Melmer remembers several blizzards over the years and having to basically carry the snow out of the basement steps with a shovel.

He worked for Bennett for 10 years before buying him out and operating in the same location.

Ten years later — in 1993 — he moved to his Razor’s Edge location a tight spiral away. It was
a change, but not too much of one — you can see one door from the other.

Asked what he thinks of most about all his time in downtown Brookings, Melmer said change was the only constant.

“Lots of changes; lots of changes, always,” he said.

The biggest thing he saw over the years, Melmer said, was the expansion of the college pushing the local economy and the small-town nature of Brookings being resilient enough able to co-exist along with expansion.

“The growth of the college is the big one. And, in general, the retail, the sales tax money is pretty big money nowadays compared to what it was. It gives the town the ability to do a lot more things, and that’s still going on, across the interstate, even more now,” he said.

“Residents have the best of both worlds. In summertime we got the small town feel, in wintertime we’ve got the activity that students bring. And it’s been a good blend, and I think the students, come this time of year, they’re ready to go home. And they come back ready to be here in the fall with a couple more bucks in their pocket.”

But Melmer’s fondest memories are in the relationships he made with friends who were customers, and customers who became friends.

“That’s what it’s about, building relationships with people,” he said. “And I am so thankful for
everyone and everything people have done.”

Even after he closed the doors to walk-in customers, he continued to cut the hair of regular customers, many of whom had only ever had Bob cut their hair. Over 53 years, he had many families where he gave three generations their first haircut.

On a Razor’s Edge
Bob’s place was more than a barber shop —or maybe just what a barber shop should be.

While you waited for Bob to finish up on whoever was in line in front of you, you could catch up on the gossip in town, rehash the latest local ballgame or argue professional football, whether you were a fan of the Vikings, the Packers or Melmer’s beloved Bears.

And while the pro move was always to wait for Bob, he made a point to mention a couple of his
second chairs — Molly Yunginer cut hair there for 13 years and Denise Rennich was there for almost 20.

With a need for only one chair at the appointment only Razor’s Edge, Bob’s wife Jeanne got him a recliner so Melmer could put his feet up between clips.

Keeping community
Melmer was committed to continuing to cut the hair of his longtime regular clients for as long as he could — he mentioned their loyalty multiple times.

“The plan is to take care of them like they have always taken care of me,” he said when he went to appointments only.

And though he’s much too modest to say it himself, that’s something Melmer has always done. He has continued to make house calls for older Brookings residents.

He also has delivered the papers and magazines he always kept at the shop for people waiting — waiting for Bob, always — to folks who might not mind reading the news a day late.

And he has long and widely been known to refuse payment for a haircut for someone who
might have been short that week or just was a scuffling college student without many dollars in his pocket at the time.

He won’t get to play golf in his retirement like he long planned — “Parkinson’s took thatfrom me,” he says.

But he will get to watch his Cubs and Bears some more. And spend time with his grandchildren.

“It’s like a weight on me at all times,” Melmer said. “And I hurt pretty bad in the mornings, I get up and stretch a little bit, and I’m on some drugs that help, but yeah, it it limits me on a lot of things, which can be frustrating. But I’ve got a wonderful wife who takes care of me, and I’m very lucky, actually.”

Though Melmer intends to enjoy his retirement — “I finally found something I’m good at,” he quips — he also said he hopes to see friends and regular customers alike at his retirement party on Friday. Several friends from way back are planning to make the trip back to Brookings for it, and he hopes to see familiar faces from in town, as well.

“I had a good base, and yeah, I’m lucky, and the fact that I’m lucky — that’s a big part of it. Right place, the right time. Brookings turned out to be a great place for me to be.”

Linehan is the Beacon’s managing editor who got his first haircut downstairs at Bob’s and welcomes story tips and comments at BrookingsBeacon@gmail.com