Jan 11, 2015 3 min read

BANGOR – With 70 years of haircutting under his belt, Sam Galati is approaching his 83rd birthday with no plans to retire.

But on the last morning of 2014, the Bangor barber said he worried he’d have no choice. A Dec. 31 fire tore through the building Galati has occupied since the early 1970s.

Word of the fire also reached Jennifer Schweitzer, of Upper Mount Bethel Township. Schweitzer is the owner of JMS Salon and Spa in Bangor, and knew Galati from a high school job at a tanning salon near Galati’s barbershop.

Schweitzer, no stranger to fire after her home in Eldred Township, Monroe County, burned down in 2006, was desperate to do something.

“It’s a hell of a thing to get over,” she said.

As crews were extinguishing final hot spots at the three-story building, carefully navigating the ice-slicked sidewalks, Schweitzer was calling one of her customers – a Bangor police officer – to ask about Galati. “She told me, ‘Actually, he’s standing right here,”‘ Galati said.

Schweitzer made her pitch: Though he’d have to share the space with her staff, Galati could have a chair at her South Front Street salon for as long as he needed.

The Bangor barber didn’t hesitate.

“It was a blessing, really,” he said Tuesday, his first day back on the job since the fire. “I was already going out of my mind.”

Most people Galati’s age have hung it up by now.

But the 1950 Bangor High School graduate said the money he makes cutting hair, no matter how small, helps his finances. Of course, that’s only part of it.

He’s also still quite fond of those chitchats with customers that go along with the craft he said “comes so natural.”

“As long as I feel healthy, I can certainly come to work,” said Galati.

As a boy, Galati said he and his late brother, Joseph, were given a choice by their father: They could grow up to be barbers or stonemasons. Both were family traditions, Galati said.

But to call that much of a choice wasn’t exactly accurate, Galati said. “I was the real skinny guy, and my brother was the big bruiser,” Galati said.

Naturally, he explained, Joseph Galati was groomed for the mason’s trowel , and Sam Galati was handed a pair of scissors.

Starting at 13, Galati would hone the craft at the barbershop of his cousin, Bennie Gardiniere, in Bangor. When Gardiniere returned to the United States after World War II, he opened a new shop in Easton. Galati said he’d ride the bus every Friday to work for his cousin, who was a tough teacher.

The tough approach encouraged Galati to perfect his skills, leading him to practice on friends at home and even with an imaginary comb and scissors in the air.

“It’s kept my fingers limber,” he noted with a chuckle.