Marion DeMars-Special to the Sun

George Gaylord, who has been the Camp Owen barber for more than 28 years, decided it's time to hang up his clippers. During the time in which he made his twice-weekly trips to the camp, Gaylord gave about 22 haircuts each week. Patty Smoot, Office Services Specialist at Camp Owen, estimates Gaylord has  barbered 1,144 heads per year. Multiply that by 28 and you get a lot of hair underneath the barber chair. Gaylord owns the Kernville Barber Shop, a one-chair operation on Big Blue Road, nestled between That s Italian and Sportsman s Inn. He brought his barbering talents from Bakersfield to Kernville in February 1989. Gaylord recalls,  Soon after I bought this shop, Camp Owen Director Ken Norton asked me if I would cut the hair of the wards. Gaylord responded,  When do I start? He is a second-generation barber. His father was a barber in Oildale and signed up Gaylord, then 17, for barber college. He worked his way through school by cutting hair. In addition to working in Bakersfield, Gaylord has worked in Huntington Beach, Orange County and Palm Springs in the winter. Gaylord passed the Camp Owen barber-baton to Susie DeBlieck of Total Image last week, not allowing for the fanfare of a going away party.  I didn t give them the chance. I just did my job. The boys needed a haircut and I was there, he said.  All the boys like me because I cut their hair. Gaylord said that several expressed an interest in working in his field; he gave them some advice and recommended the barber college.  Camp Owen is really good for the boys, he said.  They go to school. They used to have a dairy there and some of the boys learned dairying. It is in the open air and that is a change for most of them.  He s been so faithful, Smoot said.  I ve been here nine years and he was here way before me. He comes in with his large bag. We have a little room here, which he uses. One day the camp staffers put up a little wooden barber pole outside that room and Gaylord enjoyed seeing it each time he arrived, Smoot said. Gaylord s son recently graduated from barber college but  wants to go to the big city, and won t take over his dad s business as Gaylord had hoped.  The shop has been here since Kernville was moved up here, he recalls. Gaylord has fond memories of his barbering days in Kernville.  I had a good experience meeting the old timers up here. I ve really enjoyed that, he said. He especially recalls conversations with author and poet Ken Wortley, cowboy Johnny McNally, Bob Powers and rancher Bill Kissack.  I went to Johnny Wofford s house when he couldn t get around, George remembers. These days he enjoys chatting with valley pioneer Harvey Malone and with cinematographer Chuck Barbee, who is developing a television anthology about the history of the Kern River Valley. As for retirement, Gaylord said,  I m a fisherman and I am planning a three-week trip to Coos Bay, Oregon to fish for salmon. The humble gentleman added,  I just did my job. I m just a working man.

� Don Myers of Wofford Heights, George Gaylord s second customer of the day on Friday, gets his ears lowered while they talk about local happenings.