He’s not the most famous BARBADIAN you’ve never met.
Chances are, you won’t get to meet him either.
But McDonald Broomes has a story to tell.
Correction, has stories to tell.
Every day, Barbadians walk past his place of business, nestled deep in the heart of Bridgetown, and remain completely clueless to his existence.
Broomes, 78, is a barber known simply as Joe, and has been working from a small but still spacious shop in Molls Alley, The City, for the past 33 years.
So what? is the question you may ask, but there is no doubt that Joe is a famous man in Barbados. Not that he’s one to boast.
In a 40-year career with scissors and shaving machine in hand, Joe has been privileged to snaz up haircuts for some of Barbados’ most influential people.
The list is long, and just as impressive, and includes two former Prime Ministers, a Governor General, Chief Justice, Attorney General, Court of Appeal judge, prominent lawyers and a couple Barbadians who have been knighted by the Queen. The names are a who’s who of Barbadian life.
Joe doesn’t remember them all at once. But as he stands and completes a haircut, the memories start to flow, and names do as well.
Sir Clifford Husbands, Sir Carlisle Burton, Sir Neville Nicholls, Sir David Simmons, Justice Sherman Moore, Carlisle Fields, and last but not least, William Demas, a Trinidadian who was former governor of the Caribbean Development Bank.
The late Prime Ministers Errol Walton Barrow and David Thompson both sat in Joe’s chair, but according to the barber, politics seldom came up.
“I really liked Mr Barrow. We would talk about a lot of things regarding everyday life, and hardly ever about politics. He would always tell me to stay away from the courts and lawyers because when money goes in that area, it never comes back,” Joe told the SUNDAY SUN in an interview in his shop.
“He was a very down to earth and easy-going man, but he could crack a good joke once in a while. He seemed to like to keep things very simple.”
Joe even remembers the last time he cut Barrow’s hair, three weeks before the Father of Independence died in 1987.
“Everything seemed normal. We talked about life and he didn’t appear to be ill at all, but I know persons in my age group don’t like talking about how they feel, especially if they feel sick. I really miss Mr Barrow. He was my favourite customer of all the famous people whose hair I cut.”
Joe remembers Thompson as a quiet youngster who would come to the shop, and hardly talk, but would then go to Barrow’s law offices nearby, and talk non-stop for hours.
“Mr Thompson was very different. He didn’t talk a lot, but he was always thinking about something,” Joe said.
He said just retired Governor General Sir Clifford Husbands was a joke-teller. He would often sit in the shop and within minutes say: “Wait, Joe, I got a good one for you,” often leaving customers in stitches with his sense of humour.
“I don’t know if many people know, but as a youngster he was always ready for a good laugh.”
It hasn’t been an easy road for Joe. When he first started cutting hair 49 years ago, the price of a cut was 36 cents.
“I would have to work all day every day of the week to make just $7. That wasn’t an easy thing to do, but when I look back at my life I wouldn’t do anything else. If I were to die and come back, I would do this all over again.”
Born and raised in Kew Road, Bank Hall, St Michael, Joe is a happily married man with seven children (three girls and four boys), the youngest a 23-year-old daughter and the eldest a 54-year-old woman.
He smiles broadly and quietly praises his spouse of 26 years for still bringing his lunch every single day to the barber shop. In a corner near his scissors drawer, Joe points to a picture of his family that he has kept close since tying the knot.
Joe’s barber shop takes one back to the true old days. There is just one chair, almost 100 years old, and one small mirror on the wall.
There is a small TV and a small radio, but no live football games or music videos are shown. The radio isn’t even turned on, and the only sounds to be heard outside the whirring of his shaver, is the whirring of a small fan close by and the occasional delivery truck driving by on Roebuck Street.
Joe prefers to have a simple conversation with one of the “old boys”, who pass through every so often.
Just after 11 a.m., one such friend comes in, takes a seat and starts to talk about his latest conquest in draughts as Joe puts the finishing touches on another customer.
Having been a barber for almost half his life, retirement is on his mind for sure now.
“It’s not as much fun as it used to be. I’m feeling tired now but I think I have another two or three years before I call it quits and go home and relax.”
Joe, a racehorse fan, even has some simple rules which his older clientele understand. If they come to the shop and find it empty, they simply hang around for a few minutes, knowing their barber just stepped around the corner to place a bet at the racing pools.
His success story is based on the oldest and most used cliché in business – word of mouth is the best form of advertising.
When asked how he had been able to attract such a high-profile clientele, Joe smiles and stops cutting hair for a second.
“People just told people about me. And then those people told other people, and all of a sudden all these famous people were coming to me for haircuts.
It’s not like I went out there telling people I cut Errol Barrow’s hair last week, or I cut [Sir] David Simmons’ hair last month. Other people did all the telling,” he said with a hearty laugh.
Joe does have a few youngsters who come in for business.
“Most of the time I do cut older people’s hair but these days a lot more young people have come in.
I let them know I can do all the fancy styles they want. I could learn to do a Mohawk too,” he said, breaking down in laughter again.
Joe accepts that when the time does come to put his shaver and scissors down for the last time, it will be a bittersweet moment.
“A lot of my friends have already told me they don’t know where they will get their cut when I’m done. They will miss me, but I’m sure they will keep getting their hair cut somehow.”
He added that it would not surprise him, when he is at home relaxing with the wife, to get a call from an old customer.
“There is a shop near my house, so you never know, I may stay busy.”
He concluded that the one mistake he did make was not writing the names of all the famous customers he had in a book and getting their pictures.
But he still has one advantage: “I still have a good memory, though. I’m not that old yet.”