Marcel Larrivee received his barber’s license in 1942. Haircuts were 25 cents and Larrivee would soon be heading off to war.

Following a three-year stint driving a truck for the Army during World War II, Larrivee returned to continue his career as a barber. The cost for a cut had not changed much, which discouraged Larrivee. He got a job at a brickyard in Auburn. “One summer. That was enough,” said Larrivee about his only other job aside from barbering.

Larrivee opened his “one chair shop” in New Auburn in 1950 at the age of 26 and charged 35 cents for a trim. Kids’ cuts were a quarter. “Kids are harder to cut. I don’t know why they were cheaper,” laughed Larrivee. “You need to be busy at 35 cents a cut.”

Larrivee has lived in the same Lewiston house for over 50 years. ” I have lived in Lewiston all my life. Everyone thinks I’m a New Auburn man.” That’s because Larrivee has been sitting customers at Marcel’s Barber Shop in New Auburn for 58 years.

“As long as I feel good. I will keep cutting hair,” said the 83-year-old barber. “Customers have been coming here for 50 years.”

Larrivee has scaled back his work week to three days. His specialty is hair replacement. “I come in when I feel like it. If they make an appointment, I come in.” If Larrivee does not have an appointment for the next day, he crosses his name off the schedule book and heads to his camp on Wilson Pond in Winthrop and eats hot dogs. “I have an appointment tomorrow. I can’t take tomorrow off. … Spoiled my day,” joked Larrivee.

When Larrivee does have an appointment, politics is often the topic of conversation. “Politics. That’s what you talk about when you come to the barber,” said Larrivee. “At least for the next three months. After that, you complain about it.”

Dick Roderick has been getting his hair cut by Larrivee for 30 years. “That’s why Marcel can’t retire. We are not letting him,” said Roderick’s wife, Marge.

“As long as I feel good,” said Larrivee. “You never know. I may say what the hell. I’m quitting.”