Tommy Tew has some rules for being a good barber: Never drink booze with your customers because it can lead to a fight, give a fair price and always have a joke to tell.

“One of the boys up the street called and asked, is this a salon?” said Tew. “‘Listen to my voice,’ I said. ‘Do I sound like a salon?’”

Morrisville Barber Shop is most definitely not a salon. There’s one barber’s chair, a lone sink and wood-panelled walls crammed with collectibles. There’s a mini-fridge stocked with free Coke, in the original glass bottles. There’s often a couple of men sitting around, shelling peanuts and shooting the breeze.

Tew started the shop nearly 50 years ago and has become a town staple. He’s a one-man operation, telling stories, jokes and local history to customers who come for a great $8 hair cut and stay to trade wisecracks.

“Best thing that ever happened to me was when I got fired [from trucking] on December 19, 1957,” he said. “I remember because my son was born that day too.”

Not much has changed since Tew got his barber’s license in 1960, except now he operates his business from a small building behind his house.

“I bought the land and built this house,” he said. “I’ve been here ever since.”

He’s seen Morrisville go from green fields to shopping malls. “In 1955 the mayor said he thought the population was 205,” he said. “And three of them were dogs.”

His customer base has grown too — even drawing a few curious fellows from big companies like IBM and Cisco. “I had a guy come in; I could tell he was a stranger,” Tew said. “I said, ‘I’ll put your mind at ease. When it looks pretty good, I’ll quit. Or if I get tired, I’ll quit.’ When he left, he asked, ‘is it good, or did you just get tired?’”

Tew delivers his one-liners with decades of practiced comic timing. It’s hard not to be charmed by the 76-year-old, who still works five days a week and will stay to finish anyone’s haircut so long as they’re in his shop by 6 p.m.

His one self-described bad habit? “I guess I talk too much,” he said. But it seems to keep his customers happy.

“When we come over, we plan to be here for a couple hours,” said Mark Easley, who’s been taking himself and his son to Tew’s for the last nine years. “You can’t say, ‘I’m going to get a quick haircut at Tommy’s.’”

Tew was born and raised a “farm boy” in Sampson County, “the largest landwise county in the state,” he said.

One of 14 siblings, he offers an explanation for why his mother was so often pregnant: “My mother couldn’t hear. Well, my daddy would ask, ‘you want to go to sleep or what?’ Her not being able to hear, she’d say, ‘what?’”

Tew left home in 1951, served in the Army, then earned $55 a week driving a delivery truck for the now-defunct American News Company. He didn’t exactly plan to be a barber, but it beat “bouncing around on a truck all day.”

“I didn’t have much aspiration growing up,” he said. “I thought college was a cabbage field.”

He met Jean, his wife of 52 years, in 1957 and the couple had three children. They now have four grandkids, two great-grandkids and one more on the way.

“She’s finally getting accustomed to me,” he said about Jean, who helps him keep his appointment book.

He has no plans to raise his prices, even though he knows other barbers charge more than triple his fee.

“He’s got the best price in town,” said Easley. “My dog’s haircut cost $35.”

“Well, if you bring your dog in here, that’s what I’ll charge too,” Tew shot back.

No, nothing’s changing anytime soon.

Morrisville Barber Shop is located at 110 Aviation Pkwy in Morrisville. Tew takes appointments most weekday afternoons and Saturdays. Call 467-9445 for more information.