Re-Opening "Manny's Traditional Barber Shop"

I opened "Manny's Traditional Barber Shop" on May 1, 2007, on Galveston Island after returning home to Texas from having lived in several states in the Northeast. I had left Texas in June of 1988, after my 27th birthday. I had decided to leave to seek a future of my own, after having taken care of my parents for 10 years after my father had injured his back and was unable to work due to his back injury. My mother was a homemaker and had been caring for my father, while I earned the family income. When I wasn't at work at the oilfields, I took care of the family ranch as my father's ranch hand, caring for the cattle, horses, goats, and pigs. Building barbed-wire fences, corrals, pens, chicken coops, or whatever was needed on the ranch. Basically doing what every cowboy does on a ranch. After my decision to go out and see the world for myself, my siblings took over the care of my parents. Taking them to the doctor appointments, taking them to the grocery store or shopping or any other daily necessities of life as I had been doing.

I traveled on a greyhound bus all along the coast from Texas to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, across Georgia, and all along the East coast and finally ending up in New Paltz, N.Y., where I visited a penpal from my youth. I stayed for a couple of months there and decided to stay awhile. I stayed there for 5 years. I went to a local community college, because my parents felt that I was not living up to my potential , just being a barber. So I studied nursing, while I worked full time, in my second year I studied and worked at a nursing home and barbered on the weekends. Eventually I decided that Nursing was not the career path that I wanted.

One day I recieved a small pamphlet filled with classified ads looking for sex affairs, relationships, love, and even marriage. One stood out for me and I wrote to that one inquiry, I was lonely and I was looking for something meaningful in my life , I was looking for someone to Love. We wrote to each other for a few months,( this is before the internet), then started talking on the phone and eventually I flew down to meet them. I took them two dozen yellow roses and I was given two dozen red carnations. I fell in love with the smile of my Beloved. We were together 31 years, before I lost My Love in March of 2023.

We moved in together and were quite happy. We lived in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Georgia, and finally settling in Galveston, Texas. We arrived in Galveston on August 2,2006. I first started barbering at the Islander barber shop on 45th and Ave P, and after the landlord raised the rent to an unreasonable amount .all the tenants,and I left. I decided to open my own barber shop

When I opened my own barber shop at 1117- 23rd Street, I was on my own for the first time in my career, no fellow barbers to talk to or share in the expenses, it was just me. The people of Galveston were friendly and extremely supportive of my business and I did my utmost ot take care of my customers tonsorial needs, plus I liked my customers, they were good people. Galveston has always been a welcoming community with a rich history and diverse cultures, full of artists, craftsmen, professionals, and laborers of every kind of business. By the end of the first year in my new endeavor I had enough customers to consider my business a success. Despite Hurricane Ike in 2008 and an Economic Recession in 2009 ,that almost wiped me out, my barber shop stayed open and I kept taking car of my clients. Then we had the 26 days of non-stop rain from Hurricane Harvey, that flooded the Island and my two major back surgeries to rebuild my spine, and having to often close my barber shop for two years, I still stayed open if only part-time to take care of my customers needs. Oh, let's not forget the Covid-19 pandemic as well, that did not help my situation, but despite all of that I still tried to maintain my business. After my rehabilitation from my two serious spine operations, I went back to work on a part-time basis and my customers came back to support me, I was on my way back to being a successful barber shop again.

Then the City and County of Galveston started work on renovating 23rd Street, putting in new storm drains and sewer lines, new power and water lines, and new gas pipes. They ended up stacking all the cement drain and sewer pipes in front of my side of te block, in six months I lost all my customers. There was nowhere for my customers to park for two blocks, since the construction workers took all available parking nearby and it was almost impossible for my customers to get access to me. They destroyed my customer base in just six months. My business of 16 years was gone, ruined , not by hurricanes, economic recession, or major pandemic or major health issues, but by my own county and city government. I asked for help from my city and my county, they explained to me that I was out of luck. When I replied that I didn't have a business, or job or income to support myself, they told me that the city of Galveston had multiple food banks and charities to help me. But no responsibility to assist me to rebuild my business.

I was shocked and dumbfounded, this was not the reason I had gone into business of my own. I had done it to build my future and that of my spouse, to be self sufficient, and to serve my community but not to end up being a charity case.

I closed my barber shop on April 1, 2023, it took me 41 days to pack up 16 years of having served my community in that building. I had just become a widower on March 6, 2023, and now I had ended my career as a Master Barber.

For the next few months I worked on the mortgage to my home and dealt with my continuing rehabilitation to strengthen my spinal muscles after my back surgeries,and my kidney dialysis treatments, three times a week, and all the weekly doctor appointments. In other words, life in general.

I have decided that it is time for me to get back to work, I miss it and my customers, so I am asking for your help and support to Re-Open my barber shop in a new location. I intend to put a small office/workshop on my property. The building will be a pre-fabricated structure measuring 12'X16' feet, with water, power, and AC unit. I am planning to use an Appointmens system, so my customers will not have to sit and wait too long at my small barber shop. My number has not changed, it is still listed.

I am asking for your help and support in my endeavor to re-open "Manny's Traditional Barber Shop".

With Sincerest Gratitude,

Manny Salazar Jr.

Master Barber