Given the Highland Park Village’s drive to have only haute couture designer brands for women, it seemed a matter of time that the Village Barber Shop would be swept away.
It got swept when HPV would not renew the Village Barber’s lease at year end. So, after 50+ years of serving the HP community the shop closed.
In a biweekly ritual, many customers got their own, their sons’, and grandsons’ hair cut there. You could count on genuine good-natured familiarity, sports and stock tickers on the tv, a complete lack of formality and an air of small town-ness on every visit.
As a young boy growing up in a small Texas town, we had one of these and the feeling at the Village Barbers was the same.
There was one more thing. You could always count on knowing someone there. Village Barbers was a community service more than a leaseholder or retailer. They certainly weren’t haute couture fashionistas or hair designers, nor did they try to be.
HPV ceased being a neighborhood shopping center many years ago, so this isn’t a surprise, but a small sense of community vanished with these changes. It has become a shopping destination for the affluent woman.
Neighborhood Spotlight
Park Cities
Where the Park Cities Stay Connected.
If you want a sense of community, you can pay a hefty membership fee to the Park House or join the Dallas Country Club for an even heftier membership fee if you can even get approved to get in.
So buenos suertes, Dale and Mike. We’ll miss you, the biweekly ritual, and another piece of Highland Park history.
David Gravelle
Highland Park
