There has been a unique work opportunity in the town of Vilna, Alta., 150 kilometers northeast of Edmonton.
“We are looking for a barber at this time, we are,” said Ron Farmer, 76, president of the Vilna Pool Hall Society.
The successful candidate must be competent to cut the hair of men, “but it would not have a little knowledge about women’s haircuts,” says Farmer.
Nor does it hurt if they are interested in history, since the store is in the Vilna Pool Hall and the Barber that has been a fixed element in the town since 1921.
“We are the pool and the oldest barbershop of Alberta,” said Carol Trider, vice president of society. “Alberta’s historical resources designated him, so we are very proud of the fact.”
The establishment has a red leather barber chair at the front of the store, along with two old pool tables and a couple of pool tables covered with Emerald green felt. Trider says that the place is still attracting tourists and premises equally.
“I think many of them are surprised at how original it is. It’s like walking back in time.”
The living room was owned by local families, the Pawluks and later the Taschuks, in the first days, but in 1997 it had fallen into difficult times. The society formed to save the building and restore it to its ancient glory.
Look | Have an idea of the pool room and Vilna’s barbershop:
One of the oldest pool and barber rooms in Canada is thriving in the town of Vilna, Alta. It is thanks to a group of volunteers dedicated with passion for the pool, a inclination for pockets and a stick attitude to IT that has maintained this place in the example during the last 100 years.
Citizens in the town of 300 spent years and raised thousands of dollars to repair the building’s base and update heating and electricity, all with the aim of maintaining the community center and preserving local history.
Trider said that places like this were quite common in Western Canadian Boom cities in the 1920 He considered himself suitable for a lady.
“In 1921, women were never allowed in the Billiard Hall,” he said.
That finally changed about 50 years later, and then the children visited at lunchtime, Tider said. “Sometimes the director or teachers took them out,” or hid in the bathroom or ran through the back door, he said.
Laurie Kunyk was one of those children. “I went to the eighth grade. I thought it was intelligent enough in those days,” said Kunyk, who also admits to be a bit a “pool shark”, and not above cheating.
“In those days I didn’t use glasses, I could see quite well. Now I see the double.”
The group of shots cost him 20 cents per game, said Kunyk, who also remembers that the barber has stayed busy.
The volunteer of the pool room, Linda Yurdiga, said that prices have come up since then, but the vintage place continues to draw fans of history, school groups and tourists in the city.
“They think it’s great,” said the 61 -year -old man. “They have a pool game for two dollars per person, per game.”
At those prices, society really does not earn the hall money.
They keep it through subsidies, fundraising barbecues and occasional birthday party.
And even if Shooting Stick is not yours, there is a museum in the back of the hall, a replica of the modest homes that was home to the family that directed the joint.
Mainly it is a place to connect with friends and accumulate some laughs in winter on Saturdays from 11 am to 3 pm
“Putting up with the news and gossip and that kind of thing,” said Yurdiga. “It’s a lot of fun.”
