ROTHENBURGER – Saying farewell to John DeCicco, the Barber of Main Street

THE BARBER OF MAIN STREET, John DeCicco, died this week. He was a friend of mine.

Besides cutting hair, John was a former City councillor. I knew him for some 30 years, before, during and after politics. In 1999, we were both elected to City council. I served for two terms and John stayed for two more.

We remained friends as I returned to my job at The Kamloops Daily News and he carried on with his council work and his business, and beyond that when we were both retired.

Born in Italy, John came to Canada as a teenager with his family, went through school here and decided to become a barber. After getting his licence, he opened up the Continental Barbershop and trimmed the hair of Kamloopsians for half a century before retiring in 2015.

Civic politics was a natural extension of his barbering. When you have a barbershop on the main street, in the heart of downtown, and you’re a good listener, it’s almost inevitable you’ll become a sounding board on life in your city.

When John retired, I wrote a column I headlined “Crisis hits hair care – John DeCicco retires.” In fact, I wrote about John several times over the years.

There were his famous Barber’s Polls (as opposed to barber’s poles) on elections at all levels, for which he claimed an 80-per cent accuracy rate, more than the professional pollsters could boast. Sometimes, I acted as his returning officer, counting up the ballots from his customers and stoppers by.

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Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.