ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / September 20, 2000

LAPLACE – If there is one thing you can say about Luce Marks Jr., it is thathe is consistent.

He has been working as a barber for 51 years and has cut hair in the same location on Main Street in LaPlace for 49 years.

He even lives on Barber Drive in LaPlace.

“There are no regrets, not really, ” said Marks. He winked and smiled.”Anyway, it’s a bit too late to have any regrets. You can’t bring it back.”Marks’ energy and red hair belie his 70 years as he smoothly and quickly snips the hair of Don Crowdus, a regular customer at Marks’ Barber Shop since 1960.

“I’ve cut the hair of just about everybody around here,” said Marks. “Butmostly I’ve done a lot of lawyers. Also used to cut Sheriff Hebert’s hair allthe time, and a lot of the assistant district attorneys.””I also used to do a lot of women’s hair,” Marks continued, “but all the beauticians started taking over the business. Anyway, barbers are a dyingbreed.”Marks didn’t start out to be a barber. Originally from St. Landry Parish, 19-year-old Marks thought he was going to be working on boats and got a job on a tugboat for a dredging operation. The crew sailed to Houston for a project,but when they got there the captain and crew got into a dispute over free time, and the captain fired the entire crew.

Stranded in Houston, Marks ran into a friend who was going to the barber college there. The friend convinced Marks to enroll, and a barber was born.His first professional job was as an apprentice for Happy Jack’s Barber Shop in Norco.

“Jan. 14, 1949 is the day I first started as a barber,” said Marks proudly.During the two years he worked there he got married and learned all he could about the hair-cutting business. In 1951 he decided to break out on his own. He found an empty store on Main Street in LaPlace, and he has been there ever since.

Nearly 50 years in one spot has meant that he has seen a lot of changes in LaPlace. Back then, Main Street was the main street in the town.”There wasn’t one traffic light in LaPlace back then,” said Marks. “There wasnothing but sugar cane fields everywhere. Airline Motors and Roussell’sRestaurant were the highlight of LaPlace’s social life.”The biggest change, according to Marks, has been the disappearance of all the farmers.

“This used to be nothing but a rural farming community,” said Marks. “Allthat’s left of that is the sugar cane.”Marks remembers all the farmers who used to come to his shop for a haircut. Bilingual, Marks would chat in French with the Cajun farmers while hecut their hair. Even though he didn’t know any Italian, Marks said he got a lotof Italian farmers as customers, too.

“But all that is passing away, and the old French is dying out,” said Marks.

Another difference for Marks is hunting and fishing in the River Parishes. Anavid outdoorsman, Marks said that today it isn’t so easy to go hunting and fishing.

“They’ve taken away the fun of it,” said Marks. “With all the private land youhave to belong to clubs and all that. Before, you could walk around in thewoods and nobody would bother you.”Having raised five children in LaPlace, Marks said he liked it a little better when it was still a small town.

“It was a different style of life back then,” Marks said.

He remembered when the Sheriff’s Office only had two deputies for the entire parish, and nobody locked their doors.

Crowdus added that it was a cheaper place to live back then, also.

“I remember buying a four-bedroom house here for $12,000,” said Crowdus.

“But LaPlace is still a good town,” said Marks, “We don’t have any big city pressures, and it is a much slower and relaxed pace. And it’s always been afriendly place.”Marks cuts the hair of between 10 to 25 customers a day, and he plans to keep doing that for as long as he can.

“If you don’t have some liking for this work, you just don’t do it,” said Marks.

He said being a barber is not the easiest profession in the world. There is noretirement pay, and no hospitalization or benefits. Marks said over 80percent of his graduating class from barber college quit the profession after five years.

“I gave retirement some thought,” Marks said as he finished up on Crowdus, “but as long as my health is good, I’ll keep cutting hair. Just keeping idle won’tdo it for me.”

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