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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; A haircut, a barbecue and a shoe repair.
				Seems like three simple things that would be available anytime you want, or need, one, two or all three.
				But the key here is &mdash; will they be the very best haircut, barbecue and shoe repair that you can get?
				Sadly, those options are running out.
				Now no disrespect to my barbers, Aldo and Peter Sartorio of Sartorio & Sons Barber Shop on West Market Street in Wilkes-Barre &mdash; they still manage to give me a great haircut every time I go there. And they accomplish that with not having a lot to work with these days &mdash; translation, my hair just ain&rsquo;t what it used to be. It&rsquo;s disappearing.
				But my haircut experience has been greatly diminished, not because of Aldo&rsquo;s or Peter&rsquo;s skills, rather because the shop just won&rsquo;t be the same without their dad, Frank, around anymore. Frank died last week. He was 93. Frank first cut my hair in 1973 &mdash; about a week or so before I got married.
				Frank was one of a kind. He was the epitome of a barber &mdash; witty, funny, talented. And he knew how to take care of his customers. His sons, Aldo and Peter, and his grandson, Frankie, will carry on that tradition &mdash; they are Sartorios, after all.
				But I will forever miss seeing Frank, but the memories will always be with me.
				Stookey&rsquo;s Famous Bar-B-Q.
				Growing up in Plymouth, we had many places to satisfy our hunger pangs. Mergo&rsquo;s for hot dogs, Joe&rsquo;s Pizza, Golden Quality, Raub&rsquo;s Restaurant, Octagon Bar, Red&rsquo;s Subs, and Stookey&rsquo;s Famous Bar-B-Que, just to name a few.
				Mergo&rsquo;s is long gone. Joe&rsquo;s Pizza became Grotto Pizza, but no location in Plymouth. Golden Quality is a laundromat. Red&rsquo;s Subs, Raub&rsquo;s and Octagon Bar are still around, as is Stookey&rsquo;s.
				But Stookey&rsquo;s is for sale. Ralph Frank, whose grandfather opened the place 94 years ago, said it&rsquo;s time to kick back and enjoy life. Included in the sale are Stookey&rsquo;s recipes &mdash; and that is a good thing. I hope Ralph also trains the new owners on how to prepare everything.
				So many times back in the day, somebody would say, &ldquo;Who wants Stookey&rsquo;s?&rdquo; We all would answer, &ldquo;I do.&rdquo; Nothing better than a Stookey&rsquo;s barbecue with relish and a chocolate milk. Choose your favorite &mdash; pork, beef, turkey, or my preference, ham.
				So I remain hopeful that someone will purchase Stookey&rsquo;s and adhere to those recipes and continue the 94-year tradition of serving up quality sandwiches. We aren&rsquo;t ready to live in a world without Stookey&rsquo;s, are we?
				Tony the shoe guy
				This Friday, Feb. 7, Tony Bonczewski will turn 90 years old. Tony owns Jordan National Show Repair in the Bicentennial Building on Public Square. Tony started in the shoe business when he was 15 &mdash; marking 75 years repairing shoes and making customers happy.
				Tony says he&rsquo;s not retiring &mdash; he enjoys his work and he loves to interact with his customers every day.
				And Tony knows his craft. There aren&rsquo;t many shoe repair shops around. Like Tony said, most of the machines in his shop &ldquo;are dead.&rdquo; The reason they are is because there aren&rsquo;t any repair people around to fix them. And, as Tony said, even if there were, you can&rsquo;t get the parts needed to fix them.
				But for now, if you have shoes that need fixing, Tony is there for you. He said a lot of today&rsquo;s shoes are made with synthetic materials, making them impossible to repair. That&rsquo;s a sad commentary on our world.
				What now?
				To recap, I can still get a good haircut at Frank Sartorio&rsquo;s barber shop &mdash; his sons Aldo and Peter and grandson Frankie are all skilled craftsmen. And the shop is a standing tribute to Frank and what he built during his 93 years. And he will never be gone because we all will talk about Frank and tell story after story about him and the barber shop.
				But Frank won&rsquo;t be there to brighten our day, make us laugh and demolish our egos with his cutting wit.
				And I can still get a quality Stookey&rsquo;s Famous Bar-B-Que with extra relish, a bag of chips and a chocolate milk. And that experience will take me back to those halcyon days of the 1960s and trips to &ldquo;the creek&rdquo; or Lake Silkworth, or to just remembering waiting for my mom&rsquo;s friend, Sandy Kraynack, to return with a bag full of barbecues, passing them around &mdash; each wrapped in wax paper with a toothpick &mdash; yellow for pork, pink for ham, red for beef.
				And I can take my shoes to Tony and they will be repaired better than new.
				And as good as I feel about being able to get that haircut, eat that barbecue and have my shoes fixed, I can&rsquo;t help but feel sad.
				Sad because I will miss Frank the barber. And sad because of the uncertainty of a future that someday may be without Stookey&rsquo;s and Tony the shoe guy.

Beyond the Byline: Of haircuts, barbecues and shoes