GREENVILLE, Mich. — The barber's chair is a seat for stories. The best ones at Bill's Barber Shop come from the man who's long held the clippers.
"I guess I talk too much," said Bill Brown, sitting in the chair himself on a Wednesday afternoon in Greenville. "Guys tell me, 'If you'd cut hair as fast as you talk, you'd be a millionaire.'"
Brown turned 97 years old on Tuesday. Leftovers from the celebration still sit on the shop counter. Cake, strawberry cupcakes and "pie, beautiful pie."
"There's longevity in our heritage," Brown said, referencing his mother and grandfather, who both lived into their 90s. His older sister is 98.
"I ain't worried [about death] because it says in the Bible man born of woman must die," Brown said.
Born with a heart condition, Brown has always been about making the cut. He needed multiple attempts to make it into the military. When the Korean War "popped loose," he got his chance and was selected to serve in the U.S. Army.
"The best thing that ever happened to me, that they finally sent me," Brown said. "Been halfway around the world."
When he returned to the states and years later enrolled in barber school, that same steadfastness stuck with him.
"I couldn't take my tools out of the barbershop because I broke quarantine, and therefore I broke the law," said Brown, referring to COVID-related business closures during the pandemic. "'You say I can't do this?' They say, 'That's right.' I told him to go to hell. I'm going to work anyway."
The razors at his shop will run as long as he stands. There are more stories to tell, still some space on his walls for barbershop and military memorabilia.
"I was in this barbershop with God — God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit — and Bill Brown," he said. "Living by grace and grace alone."
