Longtime Nisswa barber retires, though not by choice

PEQUOT LAKES — John Weise spent around 60 years cutting hair as a barber.

If he could have his way, even at age 84, Weise would still be manning his antique barber chair in his tiny one-man shop at Schaefer’s Foods in Nisswa.

However, cancer ended Weise’s career April 12. That was his last day at work. That night, his wife, Caroljean , took him to the emergency room.

After a battery of tests, Weise was diagnosed with bladder cancer that has spread to his pelvis. He’s too weak to undergo surgery, and efforts now are to just make him comfortable.

Weise reflected on his long and simple career Friday morning, Aug. 4, while sitting at the kitchen table at his longtime home in Pequot Lakes.

“I had an uncle that was a barber. He got me into barber school and I just stayed with it,” he said.

That was after Weise, who grew up in Blue Earth, served in the U.S. Navy.

After getting out of the service, he attended six months of barber school in St. Paul while in his early 20s, and then worked for 18 months under a barber in St. Peter.

Weise returned to school and became a registered barber, meaning he could own his own shop.

In the meantime, he’d met Caroljean Wallin at a potluck in the Twin Cities when she was a teacher in Farmington. That was 1963, and four months later they were married.

Job availability brought the young couple back to Caroljean’s hometown of Pequot Lakes in 1965.

Weise worked with Tom Loudon, a beautician in Brainerd, before settling around 1967 at his own shop in Nisswa.

“I went to Ted (Schaefer II) and John (Schaefer) — they had summer barbers — and they agreed I could do it year-round,” Weise said.

Back then, the Weises said the barbershop building was in the middle of what is now the grocery store’s parking lot. Later, the building was moved to where Spirits of Nisswa municipal liquor store currently sits, just south of Schaefer’s Foods, they said.

In summer 2002, the liquor store was going to be built, so Ted Schaefer III agreed to remodel a part of the grocery store for Weise’s barbershop.

Ever since, the small shop with a large window to the parking lot and its own outdoor entrance — and a bathroom, which the original shop didn’t have — has been on the southwest corner of the building.

“He was always so even tempered and always so good with everybody,” said Schaefer III, who owns Schaefer’s Foods with his wife, Robyn, and rented the space to Weise. “The public appreciated that part of him.”

People might remember seeing Weise walking around the parking lot while waiting for barbershop customers. Schaefer said Weise parked back in the corner and walking was his exercise.

Why did Weise stay for so long?

“The Schaefers are a good family,” he said, and he enjoyed his customers.

“Every day I went down there, I never went to work. It was just fun,” he said.

Weise worked Tuesday-Saturday before eventually cutting down to four and a half days a week.

He never had a phone — landline or cell — in his shop. There was no TV. No radio. And he never took appointments or credit cards.

“People just stopped in,” he said. “There was always somebody.”

Caroljean said: “A few days maybe only one, but he was there.”

Schaefer said if someone came in for a haircut and there were already three people in line, they’d sit and listen to the conversation while waiting.

“It’s leaving a void,” he said of Weise no longer being there, adding that many people liked not having to have an appointment for a haircut.

When Weise cut hair in Brainerd, his prices were 50 cents for a haircut. That price later went to $6 for a cut and then to $12, which was still the price the last day he worked.

He was comfortable with that price so never raised it, he said.

The tools of his trade didn’t change much during his years of work. He used the same barber chair that was in the building when he started. It never broke or needed repairs.

Looking back on his career, Weise said he was happy with every minute of it. He’ll miss his customers, including those who were with him since he started.

“When you’re around people, that’s what you miss,” he said, as well as their stories.

Caroljean said: “He’s come home a few times with (stories of) some really interesting people he’s met and visited with.”

Meanwhile, Caroljean continues to work full time at Weise Crafts & Variety in downtown Pequot Lakes.

“And would you believe it’s doctor’s orders?” said Caroljean, who turned 88 Wednesday, Aug. 9. “The doctor said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t change.’”

She opened her store in 1978 while teaching in the area. She taught students with learning disabilities for 25 years at Nisswa Elementary School, which she attended as a child.

Nancy Vogt, editor, may be reached at 218-855-5877 or [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Nancy.