Taking their cuts: At Bonita barbershop, baseball talk and quick wit reign supreme

March 27--At Paul's Barber Shop in Bonita Springs, the skill for cutting hair is matched by the gift of gab.

Particularly if the subject is baseball.

Shop owner Paul Tamborino, 76, is a Connecticut native and lifelong New York Yankees fan. Fellow barber Peter Apostle, 77, hails from Chicago and is a diehard Cubs fan.

Upon walking up to the shop, patrons are greeted with a Chicago Cubs flag. Apostle's Cubs miniscooter sometimes adorns a parking spot close by.

"He put that stupid flag up there, and I figured what the hell, we may catch a few customers that way, especially since they finally won the World Series," Tamborino said. "He said he was going to buy a Yankee one, but it would cost him 100 bucks, but that's the same thing that Cubs one cost, so he's full of it."

Tamborino's shop, just north of Terry Street on Old 41, has been in business for 14 years. He's been a barber for 40 years, having previously worked in his wife Barbara's beauty salon in Connecticut.

Apostle started working as a barber when he was 18 in Chicago and did it for 30 years before going into the insurance business. He found out about Paul's Barber Shop through his friend Luigi Pagano, whom Apostle worked with when both were young barbers in late 1950s Chicago. Pagano had been working at Paul's Barber Shop for a few years and was trying to recruit his old friend.

Pagano "kept telling me, 'You have to work here,'" Apostle said. "I kept telling him, 'What, are you crazy? I'm not working as a barber again.' I had been retired for 12 years and hadn't worked as a barber for almost 30."

In December, Pagano underwent a heart procedure, and Apostle filled in. With his friend's recovery going slower than initially hoped, a temporary fill-in gig has turned into nearly four months of back-and-forth with Tamborino three days a week.

Apostle shared an anecdote about the first time he and Tamborino met.

"I went in there one morning to check the place out," Apostle said. "I walked in there with my Ernie Banks Cubs jersey on. I started to introduce myself, and he told me to get the hell out of there before I could say who I was. I told him I only had one arm."

Recalling that morning, Tamborino was quick with a response.

"That's OK, I'm desperate," he replied.

The two have been fast friends and co-workers since that December day, roping Apostle back into a life he thought had long passed him by.

Apostle admitted he was nervous after not cutting hair for nearly 30 years.

"It's not performing heart surgery, but you still need to have skill to do it," Apostle said. "There were some rough moments in the beginning, but (Tamborino) hung in there with me. He likes to bust people's chops, but the guy's got the biggest heart."

Tamborino admits he rooted for the Cubs last year during the World Series, hoping they'd finally break through after going 108 years without a championship. He had ulterior motives, as well.

"I figured that would shut them all up, finally winning it, but none of them did," Tamborino said. "It's even worse now. They bring even more Cubs stuff into the shop. If anything, they've quadrupled their rhetoric."

Apostle denied gloating about the win, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

"I don't think anything's changed at all," Apostle said with a mischievous grin. "We've always been humble and kind, considerate of all other teams. We've been the doormat all these years."

Before Apostle could finish his sentence, Tamborino quickly interjected with gusto.

"Get the hell out of here!" he yelled.

Both Tamborino and Apostle love to have fun with the customers, as well.

Tamborino said he has a few Boston Red Sox fans who come into the shop. The Red Sox, of course, are the archrivals of the Yankees. To mess with these customers, Tamborino is all too happy to place a Yankees hair cape around their necks.

Both barbers say with the advent of cellphones and Google, it's a bit harder to spin a good yarn. No longer can one bend the truth as easily as in years past.

"Before, if you answered a question quick, people just assumed you knew what you were talking about," Tamborino said. "It was much easier to BS back then. The phone is the great equalizer."

Apostle added: "We don't really argue at all. We have a difference of opinion, the phones come out, and we Google it. It does take some of the fun out of it, though."

A point of discussion last week was how Paul's Barber Shop declined in ratings online. A few days earlier, it had received a perfect five-star rating from customers, but it had slipped to 4 1/2 stars. The two tried to put their heads together and figure out how it happened.

"Remember the woman who came in the other day I thought was a man?" Apostle said, again tongue-in-cheek. "I'm positive that's what it was."

Tamborino didn't care as much about who drove the grade down, instead lamenting the existence of online ratings in the first place.

"I never liked that star (stuff) anyway," he said. "Once somebody doesn't like you, they can keep voting you down."

Apostle says after spending a good deal of his life in barbershops with men, he relishes the chance to go home and spend time with his wife of 27 years, Sherri. But like he often does, he couldn't resist slipping in a few jokes.

"At parties, I'm always with the women," he said. "The men, forget it, there's nothing going on. An occasional fart, an occasional belch and that's it. 'So what kind of car do you have?' 'Oh the salesman got fired who sold me it, I got such a steal.' That's what men talk about. 'Do you know how much I paid for that house? $1,200. You know how much I sold it for? $487,000.' That kind of crap."

He obviously wasn't talking about the clientele at the barbershop, a group of mostly older men who love sports and enjoy the camaraderie of the shop.

"I never really had any desire to go back to work, but the clientele is superb, and it's nothing but fun going in to work every day," he said. "It's just a wonderful atmosphere, one you just don't see every day. There's so much back and forth, and Paul is a heck of a guy, liked by everybody. He does a lot for the community, too, sponsors (Little League) baseball teams. Just a great place to work."

Tamborino said he easily could have retired long ago but he loves what he does.

"I'm a people person, I can't help it," he said. "And I get to come into work every day, make fun of (Apostle) and get paid for it. Why would I quit?"

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