Tony Mediate figured the time to close the hair salon he's owned for 33 years on College Avenue in Greensburg has come.
But his longtime customers need not fret. The man who estimates he's given 100,000 haircuts is not retiring.
"I see the handwriting on the wall," Mediate said while sitting in the waiting room of Anthony's Beauty Salon. "Business is OK, but it's really not what we want it to be."
For 33 years he's conducted business in a building that housed a gas station when he purchased it. Now he's selling to the ownership of Mister Bones.
Mediate, 73, said the College Avenue facility will close within the month and he'll move to a smaller shop.
"I'm going to open up a little place. I don't know where yet," Mediate said. "I'm just going to put my shingle up and cut some hair. I'm just biding my time right now trying to find a place where I can move my license."
Mediate began the trade in June 1960. It was a family profession.
"My cousins and uncles were all barbers, but they didn't have any room for me to be an apprentice," Mediate recalled. "So I went to be a hairdresser. That's how that all started."
It started in the Troutman's building in Greensburg and lasted for three years until he got the itch to have his own shop.
"They heard I was going to open up a shop, and they let me go," he remembered. "I had these clients, What am I going to do with them?"
For a time, he cut their hair at his house or at those of his clients, many of whom remained with him for years.
"It's just nice to know it was here," said Marcia Osborne of Youngwood, a customer for 15 to 20 years. "It's a part of your life. I set the appointment. I knew it would be there. I knew I would be content when I left."
Jan Stewart said she just found out Tuesday the shop is closing but added she'll go to Mediate's new shop.
"I can't even imagine not coming here, to this place with these people," she said " I felt like family when I came here."
Part of that family is hairstylist Sue Eubank, who's worked for Mediate for the better part of two decades and will be going with him to his new place.
"He's been a mentor. He's the one that really pushed me to get behind the chair and have something to rely on," she said. "I've really grown with this industry. I've learned the ins and outs from sweeping floors to going to the bank. Our (clients) are just incredible. They're so kind. ... I'm really going to miss this place."
Those clients are the greatest memory for Mediate over the years, as well as his family -- wife Donna, daughters Gina and Nicole and son Rocco, a professional golfer.
In recent days, there has been much emotion among customers, also caused by the departure of longtime employees who moved on to other jobs.
"You can't believe it," Mediate said. "Customers have come and taken pictures of the inside of the shop and the outside of the shop, crying like hell. ... One of the girls didn't even say goodbye when she left, it was too sad. They're wonderful people. They've been very good to me, they've helped me raise my family. People have been so wonderful, they still are."
Mediate says while he realizes it's time to move on, he's still got that itch to cut and style hair.
"I'm still good, I'm still going. I'm still working," he said. "I'd rather do that than sit at home.' "
