Candice Dehnbostel reports:

Leo Mornson, 82, gives $8 haircuts in the back of the former Miller-Hartwig Insurance building. His one-room, one-chair barbershop is open to the regulars and newcomers to Jordan and the surrounding cities.

Mornson decorates his shop with pictures of family and friends, a clock that chimes like a train every hour, and a gnome that overlooks his work from a top shelf against the wall.

Last week, Mornson took some time with the Jordan Independent to share stories of his barbering and his life.

JI: You had a shop in Marshfield, Wisc. Is that where you started cutting hair?

LM: Yeah, I started there. I went to school at Lee's School of Barber and Beauty Shop in St. Paul, and then we moved to Wisconsin. I had three sisters living down there. I barbered in Marshfield, Wisc., for almost four years, I think. I did my journeyman there around 1948 and worked for two different barbers in a town of about 2,500 people.

JI: Have you been cutting hair ever since then?

LM: Well, I took some time off to do security work for about 10 years where you sit behind a desk. We weren't arresting no one or nothing, but we went on strike once, and then there was a little more excitement around there. But then I went back to barbering.

JI: Why did you decide to become a barber in the first place?

LM: Well, when I came out of World War II I didn't really know what to do. I didn't have a high school education; I went in when I was 17. I thought, What should I do now? And my brother-in-law said, "Why don't you go and be a barber, go to barber school. The government pays for it." And I thought, Well, I'll take that. So I went to beauty school and barber school.

JI: Do you find cutting hair rewarding?

LM: I like to cut hair, yes. I talk to the people and hear a lot of things, interesting things. You hear everything.

JI: I would guess you have regular clients then.

LM: Oh yeah. They come in from all over – Montgomery, Lonsdale, New Prague, Chaska, Belle Plaine. They're all old guys like me. There were three brothers that would drive 50 miles to get a haircut from me. I didn't see them again after I raised my price to $8 a haircut.

JI: Do they get the same haircut every time, or do they switch it up every once in a while?

LM: No, they get it cut short. They're going to come up short if they come in here.

JI: How long have you lived in Jordan now?

LM: Since 1959. My wife is from here.

JI:What's your favorite part of the town?

LM: It's a nice town. I don't know, the barbershop.

JI: What do you like to do when you're not cutting hair?

LM: Well, at my age, I sleep, and I'm fighting cancer.

Last week, I had an operation at the University of Minnesota hospital – on my nose – and they did plastic surgery on it. About two months ago, I had melanoma on my arm and they took that off. It came back negative, though, so I was lucky. I've had colon operations, bladder operations.

I was 60 miles from Japan when they dropped the atomic bombs. Then, we went back to the Yellow Sea and patrolled there. And they didn't know at that time that the fallout could cause skin cancer or other cancer.

JI: I hope you do well and have support from family and friends.

LM: Oh yeah, I've got a lot of children. Six kids – four boys and two girls. One lives in Jordan, and one lives in Montgomery, one is in Minneapolis, and another in Chaska. They're all over, one in Shakopee. I got it covered.

For a video tour of and interview at the barber shop, look below.

Candice Dehnbostel is an intern for the Jordan Independent. She can be reached at dehnb007@umn.edu.