Summary:
Nick Trujillo was interviewed by Julie Sullivan in December 2005. Nick was a barber in Lafayette for 58 years. He started in 1947 with a shop on Mt. Diablo Boulevard, and then moved to a location in the Plaza Shopping Center in 1963. In this interview he shares his memories of the many customers he had over the years and of what it was like to live in Lafayette during this period.
Oral History:
Amid walls filled with Western memorabilia and photos, Nick Trujillo cuts hair for a fifth generation of customers. Nick’s Barber Shop has operated at the same spot in the Plaza Shopping Center for forty- three years. Nick received a commendation from the Lafayette Historical Society for fifty-eight years of continuous operation, sixteen years on Mt. Diablo Boulevard before moving to the Plaza Center in 1963.
Born in Colorado, Nick arrived in Lafayette in 1941. “There were no jobs in Colorado, except working in the mines,” he explains. Nick’s uncle, a barber in Oakland, taught him the basics of barbering while Nick was working in the shipyards at Richmond. At age seventeen Nick enlisted in the Navy, serving on an LST (tank landing ship) in the Atlantic, and at age eighteen took part in the Normandy invasion. “We ferried tanks into Le Havre, France, and carried troops across the channel,” he remembers.
When the ship’s captain asked if any of the crew could cut hair, Nick volunteered and became the ship barber. “I made twenty-five cents a cut, which was good money in those days.” By 1946 when World War II ended and Nick was discharged from the Navy, his parents had moved to Oakland. He attended barber college there for a year and started cutting hair in a shop at an Oakland hotel. “I had been cutting hair in the Navy for several years, and all the customers wanted to sit in my chair, which didn’t go over very well with the manager,” Nick says with a chuckle.
In 1947, Nick and his partner, Silas Gary, opened their first shop on Mt. Diablo Boulevard (now Chico’s). “Lafayette was a small town where everybody knew each other. I remember a sign on the west end of town that said population 500.” Nick and his wife, Dorothy, were married in 1948. Dorothy, a legal stenographer, also danced professionally at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. At first, Nick commuted from Oakland, but soon he and Dorothy bought a home in Lafayette. They were married fifty-three years when Dorothy passed away. Nick has one son, one daughter, and two grandchildren, one of whom is a barber in Antioch. He is a member of the American Legion, the Chamber of Commerce, the Lafayette Historical Society, and a past member of the Lions Club.
Nick and Dorothy’s recreation was ballroom dancing. “We used to go into Oakland and San Francisco to dance at the Ali Baba and McFadden’s. We loved the rhumba, the waltz, the salsa, the fox trot.”
When Nick opened his shop at the Plaza Center, he had a total of four barbers. “McCaulou’s wasn’t even built then,” he says. Over the years a number of well-known figures have sat in Nick’s chair. “Henry J. Kaiser, Colonel Garrett (builder of the Garrett Building, now Postino restaurant) and his son, and Glenn Seaborg, father of the atomic bomb (Seaborg, co-discoverer of plutonium, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951), a number of 49ers players including Leo Nomellini, Bob St. Clair, Hugh McElhenny and Gordie Soltau.”
Nick’s memories of Lafayette are vivid. “There was a bakery by the Roundup bar, and a little dog used to trot down there all the time and trot back down the street with a loaf of bread in his mouth. The post office was next to what was then the Stanley Building on the other side of Mt. Diablo. Stan White, the CPA, was upstairs.
“Heinie was another barber in town, and gradually other barber shops opened. Marie Bennett had a beauty shop on Moraga Road. When I first started cutting hair, all the men had the crew cut, then after the war men started wearing their hair longer. At that time, beauty operators wouldn’t touch men’s hair, then with the longer hair, men started going to beauty shops to get their hair curled. Men used to come in every two weeks, and now you’re lucky to see them once a month, although I still have weekly customers,” Nick reflects on the changes in his business. “I also studied cosmetology, so I can give permanents if my customers want them. I still shave some of my customers.
“Cap Sanford used to ride a white horse into town. One day when I was having lunch in the Roundup, he rode it right inside, but the bartender kicked him out. ‘Buy all the real estate you can,’ Colonel Garrett used to tell me. He was way ahead of his time. Just think what this town would look like if all the buildings looked like his!
“In the 1940’s, Don and Ruth Thompson owned the Crossroads Bar in Orinda. It was called that because there was only one stop sign and no traffic lights in Orinda at that time. The Thompsons then opened the Cape Cod House in Lafayette, and Ruth opened the Newell House near Kaiser in Walnut Creek.
“Where Citibank is now, there was a dance hall that had slot machines and gambling in back. It was called the Alsam then later the Acapulco. The cowboys from the Moraga Land Company used to ride their horses into Lafayette on Saturday nights, and the 49ers used to practice at St. Mary’s College. We used to have big horse shows down off Moraga Road.
“Russ Bruzzone built this shopping center (Plaza Center). He flew over Lafayette in a small plane and saw the hill that used to be here. They hauled all the dirt to the Four Corners area of Concord. That took three years. Russ had foresight, and his word meant something. You didn’t have to go through any paperwork with him.
“Before this center was built, Lowell Johnson owned La Fiesta Market in La Fiesta Center. They had a big fire, and the market burned down. Mrs. Van Meter owned this property, and Safeway had a smaller store next to Mt. Diablo Boulevard. There was also a Texaco station, and Mr. Gerow owned the blacksmith shop, which was right in front of what became this center. Guy’s Drugs used to be in this center. There was a restaurant up front, the Fashion Plate, that had great appetizers. Roberts and Omo had a men’s clothing store where they sell bagels now (Noah’s) and Hazel’s Dress Shop was here. It was very fashionable.
“Lafayette was centrally located to go into San Francisco or Oakland for dinner, but we had the Cape Cod House and the Tunnel Inn restaurants here. Don Rheem wanted me to move to the Rheem Shopping center when he built it, but there weren’t any houses out there. I told him I wouldn’t have many customers.
“Bob Keeny owned Buckeye Ranch at the end of Springhill Road. He gave riding lessons. Frank Garcia was the original owner of El Charro restaurant. When he opened, he had just the counter and two tables that could seat eight. His cook, Charlie, was from Mexico.
“I used to walk down the street, and everybody knew me. Now, no one knows me. You can’t replace old friends. Lafayette grew from a village to almost a city, but you have to go with the crowd. I think Lafayette will stay the way it is.”
Excerpted from “Voices of Lafayette” by Julie Sullivan. This book is available for purchase in the History Room.
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