Don McLean looks at a collection of paper he discovered while cleaning out the barber shop he was located in for more than 48 years. He’s looking for a new home for the bits of local history.
After a 60-year career as a barber, with 48 of those years in the same location, Don McLean decided it was time to hang up his clippers.
Now the man Fort Macleod knew as Don the Barber is cleaning out his Second Avenue shop to make way for Brian Ancelet, who is taking over.
The barber shop is filled with curiosities that Don the Barber collected over the years, and he’s now busy finding new homes for some of those items.
Some items are proving easy to place. The 1897 barber’s chair, for example, will be displayed in the Fort Museum.
Other items, not so much.
Case in point is an envelope filled with bits of paper that reflect the Fort Macleod and district business community in the 1950s.
It’s an odd assortment of receipts, unused cheques, bills of sale, posters, notices and even a code of ethics for the Canadian Restaurant Association.
“I’ve been in that place for over 48 years and I don’t know how long I’ve had them,” Don the Barber said Thursday.
The large envelope was stored on a shelf above the fridge in the barber shop.
Don the Barber suspects he may have picked up the contents of that envelope at a long-forgotten garage sale, but he isn’t certain.
“That’s the question,” he said. “I don’t know how I got them.”
What Don the Barber is certain of, however, is that he doesn’t want to throw out these bits of paper that recollect days gone by in Fort Macleod.
There are receipts for the Geo. H. Scougall Garage Ltd. from the late 1950s.
Another receipt was issued by Motor Inn Service, proprietor W.L. Jones, of Stavely on June 2, 1959.
W.H. White Nanton 99 Service is represented on a receipt from June 29, 1959.
Closer to home there are receipts from the Kosy Service Station in Fort Macleod, Dixon’s Meat Market, proprietor Lawrence A. Dixon, Andrews Hardware, White Hall Grocery and Macleod and Claresholm Bakeries.
There are invoices from Sicks’ Lethbridge Brewery Ltd., Stockton and Day Electric.
There are items from The Java Shop, including bills of sale, a piece of stationery with a short history of Fort Macleod. and an unused envelope.
There is a receipt issued by the Fort Macleod Bowlarama to The Java Shop for one year of advertising on the bowling score sheets.
There are receipts from Fort Macleod’s Crystal Dairy Ltd. listing a variety of items including milk, table cream, whipping cream and buttermilk.
A 1954 receipt from J.C. Edgar and Sons Plumbing and Heating was saved, along with a bill of sale from Jenkins’ Groceteria and a receipt from Price’s Rexall Store in Fort Macleod.
Other businesses represented included The Macleod Gazette; Fred and Ted Thaell’s Dry Cleaners and Tailors; Twin Butte Store; Kennedy’s Welding, Blacksmithing, Machining, Drilling Equipment and Supplies; Cooper Transport of Lethbridge; Harry’s Texaco Service; Mountain View Garage; Herb’ Services; Beaver Lumber Ltd.; and Western Canadian Greyhound Bus Lines.
A small envelope contains two used tickets for a ride on the Canadian Pacific Railway from Winnipeg to Medicine Hat.
A number of pieces are related to the Waterton Lakes Hotel.
Don the Barber said some of the pieces were related to former Fort Macleod businessman Hugh Craig and Albert Swinarton.
Don the Barber believes these bits of history are worth preserving, and wants some help doing so.
“I want to put them in an archive or do something with them,” he said.
Anyone who is interested or has an idea where the items would appropriately be donated can call Don McLean at 403-553-3181.
