Not much has changed in the Norman Rockwell-esque barbershop at 19 Church Street in the past 80 years. A barber’s pole is mounted outside the door, people stop in to chat as often as they do to get their hair trimmed and photos and knickknacks line the walls.

The only major difference inside this town institution is the person holding the scissors.

Abraham Skidmore, Al Morgado and now Jodi Bauer have inhabited the simple shop, barely bigger than a living room, snipping the locks of generations of Mattapoisett residents.

As American as apple pie

It all started with Skidmore, whom everyone called Skid. A slim African American man from North Carolina, Skid came to Mattapoisett in 1899 and owned three barbershops in town.

He settled into the one on Church Street around 1928, which was either built or moved there for him – no one is quite sure.

A 1949 article from the Boston Post Magazine described Skid as “American as apple pie and ice cream, as Saturday afternoon movies for the kids, as ham and eggs.”

Skid was known for his patriotism. On the Fourth of July, he dressed in costume, put a drum around his neck and marched in the annual parade.

For two world wars he encouraged people to support Uncle Sam. According to the Boston Post, during World War II Skid famously wore a signboard around Mattapoisett that read, “Did you buy a bond? He’s fighting for you and for me. God save America!”

He organized the Mattapoisett Cornet Band and later the Hobo Band and also started a Halloween parade to keep kids out of trouble.

Though he and his wife never had kids of their own, he was a friend of every child in town.

Skid was also the guy people came to when someone was in need. Ringing a cowbell he went door to door asking for money on behalf of a recent widow or uniforms for the baseball team. But he was most often found at his shop where newsboys sorted their papers and “old-timers” discussed the goings-on.

The Mayor of Mattapoisett

The beloved barber died from a stroke in 1955, and Al Morgado moved into the shop the following year.

A native of Mattapoisett, “Al the Barber” learned the art of haircutting in the service. Claiming he owned a few barbershops in New Bedford, Al was handed a pair of clippers on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania.

“An officer sat down and my father went right up the middle of his head with the clippers,” said Richard Morgado, Al’s son.

The other barber on board quickly taught Al how to cut hair. Upon returning to the South Coast, Al and his family settled in New Bedford where he worked until Skid’s passing.

Like his predecessor, Al was a staple in town and was always helping others.

“He was a friend of everybody,” said Richard. “He did everything for everybody – waited on tables at clam bakes, helped build the gazebo at Ned’s Point, marched in the centennial parade.”

Also like Skid, who never raised his prices more than 25 cents, Al kept his fees low and the shop simple.

In an article published by the Associated Press, Al said, "I don't need any of those fancy dryers and razor cuts. My customers come to me because I do the simple haircut."

Al didn’t buy new cars lest his customers think he was wealthy, which is certainly wasn’t.

“He never took a vacation. He was afraid his customers would leave him,” said Richard.

But Al needn’t have worried.

“He was there at five o’clock every morning. Sometimes they’d be there waiting for him to unlock the door,” said Richard.

“They” were the PL Club aka the Professional Loafers Club, a requirement of small town barbershops.

“All the retired guys…they would hang out at the barber shop all the time. They discussed and solved all the world’s problems,” said Richard.

A smoker with cigarettes hidden all over the barbershop, Al the “Mayor of Mattapoisett” passed away from emphysema in 1983, taking with him countless stories.

"I hear a lot of stuff that never goes outside the door," Al told the AP. "My customers know they can tell me anything and nobody will ever hear it from Al, no sir."

The Mattapoisett Clipper

The shop was closed for a while with a brief stint as an art gallery, but it was clearly destined for Jodi Bauer, a Mattapoisett native who had her eye on the shop since she was a teenager.

“I used to say to my girlfriends, ‘Someday I’m going to have that barbershop in the center of town,’” Bauer remembers.

Call it a coincidence or foreshadowing, but Bauer grew up walking in the footsteps of Abraham Skidmore.

Her family home on Pine Island Road, where her mother still lives, was the same one where Skid settled with his wife.

“Is that weird or what? It’s like creepy weird!” said Bauer.

Bauer graduated from Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School and went on to barber school and hairdressing school.

She worked for other people for several years before purchasing the Church Street shop in 1986. The place was a blank canvas. There had once been a leather barber chair, Skid’s spittoon and letters from soldiers addressed to Al on the walls. The place had been cleared with only a red-speckled tile floor when Bauer moved in.

Richard had donated Al’s barber pole to the Mattapoisett Historical Society, so Bauer bought a new one along with barber chairs.

She also lined up the requisite seating around the entrance for customers to congregate and share the latest town gossip.

While Skid and Al snipped the hair of men, women and children, Bauer was the first female barber to set up shop.

Though she said there were guys lined up on day one to sit in the chair (they had to wait for her father), some men needed a nudge.

“Some of the old-timers were like, I’ve never had a woman cut my hair!” said Bauer.

Eventually, the PL Club did begin to take up residence at Bauer’s shop, the Mattapoisett Clipper, though most have passed away now.

Still, as one customer said, the shop remains the place to go if you need to know about something in town.

And over time, it has become its own sort of museum. Customers have outfitted the shop with a hodgepodge of memorabilia – a painted wooden cutout to represent Skid, a harpoon over the mirror and photos of barbers past.

Already nearing her third decade as Mattapoisett’s barber, Bauer is living her dream.

“I love people and everybody is so cool in this town,” she said.