Allen's Barber Shop

                Years ago small town America was dotted with mom-and-pop businesses all along the main streets. The Andy Griffith Show regularly captured this piece of americana in a fictional town of Mayberry with such places as Floyd's Barber Shop.

                Through the years these businesses have been replaced by "big box stores" that left main streets looking more like ghost towns. However; on Main Street in downtown Ville Platte there is one business that reminds people of a time long ago in Mayberry. This business is Ville Platte's version of Frank Lawson's shop and is called Allen's Barber Shop.

                Allen Monier on a Thursday afternoon sat down on an old bench in the corner of his shop and shared his thoughts on why his business has remained open all these years. With pride in his shop he brags, "I think we have one of the best shops in town plus we have some people that are very dedicated to it."

                He also attributed it to the fact that he has a "very clean shop." Monier pointed out a sign above the barber chairs that reads "Family Barber Shop Watch Your Language Please." He added, "Mommas can come in with their young child and not be afraid of hearing bad language."

                One can argue the main reason it has stayed open is that it has adjusted to the times and has employed a new kind of worker that was once foreign to the barber shop. This new kind of worker is female barbers. "Beauty shops were beauty shops, and barber shops were all barber shops," explained Monier. He loves the fact that people's attitudes are changing "big time" about having women cutting their hair. It was once considered taboo for a woman to go into a barber shop.

                Working at the shop now are Brittany LaFleur, Emily Knowles, Rebecca Rozas, and Samantha Fontenot. They went to beauty school, and Monier pushes them to go before the barber board to get their licenses. As he put it, it is "for their own good because when I'm gonna be gone they'll be able to make a living."

                This new workforce creates a new line of services provided in the barber shop such as provide highlights, coloring, and perms along with the traditional cuts. Knowles joined the conversation and described the process of highlighting hair. "We section it how we need it," she began. "Then we take out the pieces, apply the bleach, let that process, then wash it out and style it." She went on to describe the difference between a highlight and a lowlight. "Highlight is like when  you apply bleach so you're making it lighter," she pointed out. "Lowlight is when you're making certain pieces darker."

                Monier provided a another reason of his business's success, which is "keep things the same as they are now." He added, "I don't see any changes. We do everything so why change when something is good going."

                His son David, who now owns the barber shop, came in and sat on an old school desk adding his thoughts on his dad's place of business. He credits it to "friendliness of the staff and customer satisfaction." He also credited it to his dad's "hard work in building this business up for many many years and keeping it going."

                Allen Monier, the son of Marcellus Monier and Izola Soileau, was married to Genevieve Monier who died in 2009. He also has a brother Ellis who lives in Lafayette. He joined the National Guard after high school, and then the Korean War began. Being one of the few in his unit able to type, he became company clerk for his company operating out of battalion headquarters taking care of all the paperwork.

                Returning to Ville Platte after his time in the service, he worked five years at Cabot and got laid off twice before going to barber school in Beaumont in 1958. "I got married, and had a child, and built a house, so I thought it was time to do something else," he explained. "So I went to barber school."

                He began cutting hair at Deluxe Barber Shop between the old Cleco and the Rexall Drug Store. "Mrs. G. Ardoin owned that property, and it was passed down to her only adopted daughter," recalled Monier. "She was a New York train orphan. That's Burke Eastin's momma."

                Monier recalled one instance cutting hair back then that is called "The Miracle on Christmas Eve." Shoppers at G. Ardoin's and West Brothers lined the street in the area of the shop. The shop was full then as Monier was cutting a flat top for the old fire chief Rynell Smith. The old police chief Robert Landreneau was still in high school at the time. Monier recalled "he was sitting in down in the first chair, and he was a tall lankey fellow." Lloyd Joubert and his son were also waiting.

                A truck pulled up and "parked right in front of the shop." A guy from Turkey Creek got down with his wife to go shopping G. Ardoin's and left their two children in the truck with a shot gun in the gun rack. "These kids were playing, and one of them hit the trigger," recalled Monier. "That shot went underneath the chairs all the way and lodged in the end of the shine stand."

                David Monier says it is called a miracle because "nobody got killed, and nobody got hurt." His dad added, "I promise you it seemed like 30 seconds before there were two couples that met and stopped, and they talked right in the line of fire. They just moved away and bam it went off. Lloyd Joubert said, 'I believe we'll come back another time.'"

                While his dad said this, the junior Monier laughed saying, "I think so."

                The elder Monier said how he worked 10 years at the Deluxe Barber Shop before he bought the property and opened up his current shop. He reflected on what he wants his legacy to be. "I want this shop to stay a barber shop for a long long time after I'm gone," he said. "I gave it to my son David, and I would like for him to keep operating it as a barber shop. I would like for this to stay the way it is for a long time."

                Charles Kuralt hosted a segments on CBS Sunday Morning called "On the Road." For these segments he travelled the back roads of the country in search of real American people and their way of life. He never came to Ville Platte, but he would say of Allen's Barber Shop, "...it is as it was meant to be..."