Bygone barbershop
ADAMS TWP — William DiCuccio was known as a healer in Butler.
Unlike his sons, DiCuccio did not have a medical degree. His treatment came in the form of counseling troubled youths to set them on the right path.
After cutting hair at his West Jefferson Street barber shop, DiCuccio would scarf down a bagged lunch and head to the First United Methodist Church on McKean Street, where he talked with teens.
“He wouldn't come home to eat supper,” said his younger son and namesake, Dr. William DiCuccio.
As part of a program started by former Judge George Kiester, the older DiCuccio would work with at-risk youths.
Years later, Butler County Juvenile Court Services recognized DiCuccio's efforts by naming its Juvenile Justice Award after him.
The award was presented at a banquet for roughly 10 years beginning in the late 1990s.
To commemorate his father, who died in 2004, Dr. William DiCuccio recently converted a room in the basement level of his Adams Township home into a tribute to the barber shop.
Sitting to the side of the room is the original chair with a red leather seat in which many people had their hair trimmed.
Various razors and scissors are displayed along with combs doused in blue antiseptic liquid.
Some of the shop's original signs, including “Sorry, we're closed,” are lined up along shelves.
A red sign with white lettering lists prices of $1.50 for adults, $1.25 for children (except Friday and Saturday) and $1 for a shave.
A box of the shop's original matchbooks is a couple shelves down.“I was holding onto a part of my past,” DiCuccio said about keeping the mementos.He recalls his father having the youths come in for free haircuts, so the barber could check up on them.Decades later, the younger DiCuccio treated patients who credited his father with keeping them from straying onto the wrong path.“My dad made a difference in people's lives,” DiCuccio said.The DiCuccios originally came from an Italian town named Cerro al Volturno, which is a municipality in the Province of Isernia east of Rome and north of Naples.Due to poor economic conditions in Italy, Nicola DiCuccio, the family patriarch, came to America in 1909 looking for work.He landed a job in Erie with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.While DiCuccio labored in America, his wife and children stayed in Italy.Each year, Nicola DiCuccio went back to Cerro al Volturno. Using money he brought with him, DiCuccio's relatives bought land there for 50 cents an acre.In 1929, a splinter lodged in Nicola DiCuccio's arm, eventually necessitating an amputation.The railroad found him a new job as a crossing guard at Pullman Standard station. The new job required a relocation to Butler.Needing more help here, DiCuccio brought his wife and youngest son, William, to America.While a boy, William DiCuccio got a job in a local barber shop.“He started to shine shoes,” his son said.After serving an apprenticeship at that shop, Nicola's son later opened his own business on East Jefferson Street in 1935.Four years later, DiCuccio moved the barber shop to West Jefferson Street, where it remained for more than 50 years.After starting his own family, DiCuccio brought in his younger son, William, to work in the shop.“I used to clean it,” DiCuccio said.The barber paid his son $2.50 for each day worked.“Five dollars a week was big money,” DiCuccio said.
He recalls his dad dispensing sage advice.“He said have faith in God and get an education,” DiCuccio said.The older DiCuccio didn't just help youths. He regularly met with the Armco plant manager about prospective hires for the company.“He trusted my dad's judgment,” DiCuccio said.The elder DiCuccio's endorsement also was sought by political candidates, who visited the barber shop seeking approval.“If you wanted to run for office, you went there,” his son said.DiCuccio said the candidate's party affiliation didn't matter to his father, only the individual's character.“He wanted honest government,” DiCuccio said.Candidates who passed muster could leave nomination petition forms at the barber shop.Emigrating from fascist Italy, which was under the regime of Benito Mussolini, the barber appreciated America's democracy.As a Butler Rotarian, DiCuccio heavily promoted the organization's Election Day pancake festival.His son said DiCuccio sold as many tickets to the festival as he could, hoping more people would come out to vote.The younger DiCuccio said his father couldn't understand why Americans didn't exercise their rights under a democracy.“He wanted people to vote,” DiCuccio said.
He called his father, who always stopped to doff his hat when chancing upon a funeral, a “gentle soul.”DiCuccio keeps another part of father's legacy alive by making wine in another room of his basement.“He taught everyone in Butler how to make wine,” DiCuccio said.DiCuccio goes through the entire process, starting with the crushing of the grapes shipped from South America, in his home.He gives bottles of Malbec, a type of red wine, and the white Viognier to family and friends.“My wife only drinks my wine,” he said. “Now, she doesn't want anyone else's.”DiCuccio's cousins still make wine in Cerro al Volturno.“You have 500 people in the town drinking it,” DiCuccio said.
