One of my favorite parts of growing up in a small town was the mom and pop businesses that helped make the community. In Stewart Manor we have a great little deli, card store, bagel store, hardware store and of course, a barber. Any guys around my age in the greater Stewart Manor area go to (or went to) Benny and Mike's Barber shop. I started going there as a kid and was there just last week getting my monthly hair cut. As a kid, Benny and Mike's was made up of three older gentleman straight off the boat from Italy. I always went to Benny. He was my barber when my mom would come to the shop with me, he fixed the mess I made of my hair with manicure scissors before our family vacation to California in '88 (yes I cut my hair with manicure scissors. What can I say? 8 year old boys are curious) and he cut my hair before my communion, confirmation and graduations from grammar school to college. I figured that Benny would cut my hair before my wedding but when the time came, Benny wasn't there. Since he often went home to Italy during the summer I figured that we just missed each other and that I would catch him for my "first day of school" hair cut.
When I went back in September, I learned that Benny had died. He had been sick with cancer and he went quickly over the summer. When I learned of this, I was both shocked and saddened. Benny was a genuinely nice man and although we weren't exactly friends we did have a relationship that covered 20+ years. He would often remind me that he had cut my hair "since I was this big" while holding his hand a few feet off the floor. My mom always told me that any time she passed the shop when walking down the avenue Benny would give her a wave. Time passed, the two other men retired but Benny kept working with his sons and grandson joining him in the shop.
A few months back, Benny's grandson was cutting my hair and we started talking about soccer, specifically the Champions League. His grandson was a fan of defending champion Barcelona who would be playing Inter Milan of Italy in the semi-finals. Since I had just watched Inter defeat English powerhouse Chelsea, I told him that I thought Inter was the team to beat. It was at that point that his grandson told me that Inter was Benny's favorite team. Although they hadn't won the European Championship since 1965, the combination of a great coach, a good team and Benny confirmed for me that Inter would indeed raise the cup in Madrid.
Yesterday was the final between Inter and Bayern Munich of Germany. Behind the plan of coach Jose Mourinho and two wonderful goals from Diego Milito, Inter Milan won the Champions League. Throw in winning Serie A (the Italian league) and the Italian cup and Inter did something that only 5 other European clubs have done by winning all three titles or the "treble" as it's known in world of soccer. After the match I couldn't help but think of Benny. Although he was no longer cutting hair on Covert Avenue, I'm sure he was somewhere celebrating the victory.
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