Teary send-off

Krause had his hair cut at Al's for 32 years, which he calculated added up to about 500 visits. And he was one of hundreds of friends and customers who showed up teary-eyed at last Saturday afternoon's going-away party for Piro and final goodbye to the old shop.

The tears were real, all right. After all, where will these men find another home away from home?

For the past five decades, Al's Barber Shop, located at 368 Main St., was the last of their old-fashioned Clubby bastions, where guys could be, uh, boys.

They could pass along naughty jokes and thumb through girlie magazines, smoke pipes and cigars (mostly outside, but sometimes inside); watch endless televised golf and ballgames, and still walk away with a durable $16 haircut.

For all but five of those years, Piro worked alongside Galedrige.

"We've been working longer than we've been married to our wives," Piro said. "In fact, we said, as this a divorce or just a separation?"

Cut Packard's hair

Patrons say the two men cut hair the same, and the partners shared clients. One was Hewlett-Packard Co. confounder David Packard, who apparently had his own idea about what made a good haircut

"He did not like his hair short," Piro recalled "He didn't judge it by how long you kept it, but by how long he was in the chair. He would sit there for a certain period of time and say, 'OK We're through.' And that was that. Sometimes you weren't finished with the cut, but as far as he was concerned, you were."

The two barbers fought only over politics. Galedrige is Republican, piro a Democrat. "We fight like cats and dogs during elections," Galedrige said.

No one expects the new business to be the same. Not that clients didn't try to convince Piro to stay.

They begged him to consider part time work. They brought him $100 bills, bottles of merlot and champagne - one client even presented him with a home putting green.

"It wouldn't be fair to get in a few and not the others," Piro said wiht a sigh. "They've all been so nice through the years. The've given me nice gifts."