thedrifter
03-13-05, 07:09 AM
Barber's wall holds a growing lesson in military history
By JEFF JARDINE
BEE LOCAL COLUMNIST
Last Updated: March 13, 2005, 04:46:08 AM PST
You won't see blow dryers or trendy and expensive shampoos and mousses in Dick Barboza's barber shop.
It's an old-fashioned place where you'll find a tall jar of blue liquid comb disinfectant and the distinctive smell of Jeris barber's tonic.
You also will find a miniature museum of sorts: pictures, posters, patches and pins from World War II to the present. It's a collection of gifts from customers who share the 74-year-old Korean War veteran's affinity for his country.
More than 200 items grace the wall facing the two chairs in his one-barber shop. It started in 1991, after Barboza was evicted from his shop of 25 years because the building's new owner wanted a real estate office there instead.
Friends helped Barboza find a spacious new place in a small strip mall at 605 Tully Road, across from Modesto Junior College's baseball field.
Then, in a most innocuous way, they began helping the Veterans of Foreign Wars member decorate his empty wall.
One day, a customer offered him a picture of an M3 half-track — a World War II-era armored vehicle that had wheels on the front and tank-style tracking to the rear. Sure, Barboza told him. He'd take it, not really expecting much.
A day or so later, the customer brought in an original framed painting of the vehicle.
"I said, 'Wow, I thought you were talking about a photograph,'" Barboza said.
Then the man gave him another painting in a matching frame — this one of the twin-gunned tank the customer drove during the Korean War.
The customer, Barboza said, had the paintings made to hand down to his children.
"He said, 'They're just collecting dust, and my kids don't want them,'" Barboza said.
So on the wall they went, beginning a collection that hasn't stopped growing. Because as Barboza told other customers the story behind the paintings, they began contributing memorabilia.
"It just bloomed after that," said Barboza, 74. "It just took off."
His wall now includes:
Photos of planes, including one of the Enola Gay, which dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. The photo was taken by a customer who had maintained the aircraft before it was chosen for its infamous bombing run.
"He said, 'By golly, I worked on that plane,'" Barboza said.
A sketch of the USS Arizona and a photo of the USS California, which Japanese planes sent to the bottom of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
A photo of the old USS Enterprise and a watercolor of the latest one.
Prints of the now-famous photos showing Gen. Douglas MacArthur wading ashore on the Philippines island of Leyte and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower visiting with troops shortly before the D-Day invasion at Normandy.
A photo of Adm. Chester Nimitz signing documents, with MacArthur standing behind him, on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri after the Japanese surrendered to end World War II. And Barboza also has copies of the surrender documents signed by the Japanese and Germans.
Framed recruiting posters from the Navy and Marines.
Photos of Barboza and friends in the Korean War Veterans Association, and a framed collage of pictures from the dedication of the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery at Santa Nella in 1992.
Dozens of unit lapel pins from different branches of the service.
And uniform patches — more than 100 — given to him by those who wore them. They represent everything military from his own units to a seaman from the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, to the space shuttle Challenger.
Those patches led to more patches, and from different types of uniforms, Barboza said.
"A California Highway Patrolman friend of mine came in and said, 'I think you're discriminating against us. All military, none for law enforcement,'" Barboza said.
So he began a board for police and ambulance patches that spilled over to fill a second entire board.
Now, when his customers come in for a regular cut, a flattop or a razor cut, they get more than just a trim with a shave around the ears and a dab of tonic.
They get a history lesson.
Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com.
http://www.modbee.com/images/ips_content/13b1barboza.jpg
More than 200 bits of military and law enforcement memorabilia grace the wall facing the two chairs in Dick Barboza's barber shop on Tully Road in Modesto.
MARTY BICEK/THE BEE
http://www.modbee.com/ips_rich_content/593-13b2patches.jpg
More than 100 patches have been given to Dick Barboza, representing everything from the first nuclear sub to the space shuttle Challenger.
Ellie
By JEFF JARDINE
BEE LOCAL COLUMNIST
Last Updated: March 13, 2005, 04:46:08 AM PST
You won't see blow dryers or trendy and expensive shampoos and mousses in Dick Barboza's barber shop.
It's an old-fashioned place where you'll find a tall jar of blue liquid comb disinfectant and the distinctive smell of Jeris barber's tonic.
You also will find a miniature museum of sorts: pictures, posters, patches and pins from World War II to the present. It's a collection of gifts from customers who share the 74-year-old Korean War veteran's affinity for his country.
More than 200 items grace the wall facing the two chairs in his one-barber shop. It started in 1991, after Barboza was evicted from his shop of 25 years because the building's new owner wanted a real estate office there instead.
Friends helped Barboza find a spacious new place in a small strip mall at 605 Tully Road, across from Modesto Junior College's baseball field.
Then, in a most innocuous way, they began helping the Veterans of Foreign Wars member decorate his empty wall.
One day, a customer offered him a picture of an M3 half-track — a World War II-era armored vehicle that had wheels on the front and tank-style tracking to the rear. Sure, Barboza told him. He'd take it, not really expecting much.
A day or so later, the customer brought in an original framed painting of the vehicle.
"I said, 'Wow, I thought you were talking about a photograph,'" Barboza said.
Then the man gave him another painting in a matching frame — this one of the twin-gunned tank the customer drove during the Korean War.
The customer, Barboza said, had the paintings made to hand down to his children.
"He said, 'They're just collecting dust, and my kids don't want them,'" Barboza said.
So on the wall they went, beginning a collection that hasn't stopped growing. Because as Barboza told other customers the story behind the paintings, they began contributing memorabilia.
"It just bloomed after that," said Barboza, 74. "It just took off."
His wall now includes:
Photos of planes, including one of the Enola Gay, which dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. The photo was taken by a customer who had maintained the aircraft before it was chosen for its infamous bombing run.
"He said, 'By golly, I worked on that plane,'" Barboza said.
A sketch of the USS Arizona and a photo of the USS California, which Japanese planes sent to the bottom of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
A photo of the old USS Enterprise and a watercolor of the latest one.
Prints of the now-famous photos showing Gen. Douglas MacArthur wading ashore on the Philippines island of Leyte and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower visiting with troops shortly before the D-Day invasion at Normandy.
A photo of Adm. Chester Nimitz signing documents, with MacArthur standing behind him, on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri after the Japanese surrendered to end World War II. And Barboza also has copies of the surrender documents signed by the Japanese and Germans.
Framed recruiting posters from the Navy and Marines.
Photos of Barboza and friends in the Korean War Veterans Association, and a framed collage of pictures from the dedication of the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery at Santa Nella in 1992.
Dozens of unit lapel pins from different branches of the service.
And uniform patches — more than 100 — given to him by those who wore them. They represent everything military from his own units to a seaman from the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, to the space shuttle Challenger.
Those patches led to more patches, and from different types of uniforms, Barboza said.
"A California Highway Patrolman friend of mine came in and said, 'I think you're discriminating against us. All military, none for law enforcement,'" Barboza said.
So he began a board for police and ambulance patches that spilled over to fill a second entire board.
Now, when his customers come in for a regular cut, a flattop or a razor cut, they get more than just a trim with a shave around the ears and a dab of tonic.
They get a history lesson.
Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com.
http://www.modbee.com/images/ips_content/13b1barboza.jpg
More than 200 bits of military and law enforcement memorabilia grace the wall facing the two chairs in Dick Barboza's barber shop on Tully Road in Modesto.
MARTY BICEK/THE BEE
http://www.modbee.com/ips_rich_content/593-13b2patches.jpg
More than 100 patches have been given to Dick Barboza, representing everything from the first nuclear sub to the space shuttle Challenger.
Ellie