By Lloyd Garrison

Mario Sebben: barber, skier, raconteur.

Through word of mouth, many Norfolk men have discovered Mario’s barber shop in Canaan, where, for $10, you can get the best haircut in all of Litchfield County.

One can also get an earful of local history from Mario Sebben if you ask for it, plus a rundown on the latest snow conditions. At age 77,  he is still an avid skier. A pair of Salomon parabolic skiis stand in the back of his shop, ready to go.

The late James Laughlin of Norfolk, also an accomplished skier, became a regular customer from the day he first walked in for a haircut well over 20 years ago. Then, as now, Mario’s is easy to miss, squeezed in between the liquor store and an empty store front on Main Street, just before Brooks Pharmacy.

This is not a plug for Mario the hair cutter, who is almost never without someone in his barber’s chair. This is about two thoughtful and gracious men, one who attended a barber school in Hartford,  the other a Harvard educated poet. Laughlin went on to became a renowned publisher of little known writers who eventually became literary icons.

For all their differences in background, Mario Sebben and James Laughlin found a common bond in their love of skiing. Stebbens first learned about the tall, lanky gentleman from Norfolk from an article in a ski magazine titled “America’s 10 Wealthiest Ski Resort Owners.” Laughlin, a descendent of the founder of Jones and Laughlin steel in Pittsburgh, was at the top of the magazine’s list.

Laughlin laughed when shown the article. “Don’t believe everything you read,” he said.

The article got the two talking about skiing. Laughlin told of having discovered a high valley near Salt Lake City where he had financed one of America’s earliest ski areas. It was Alta, now a major resort.

Sebben told of how he had qualified for the National Ski Patrol, and how his son,  Joseph, became a professional ski racer. Father and son tried to team up for at least one skiing vacation each year.

Sadly, Stebbens and Laughlin never skied together. Laughlin was well into his sixties when he discovered Mario’s. He had an undisclosed illness that resembled Parkinson’s and affected his balance. But he urged Sebben and his son to try Alta.

“Can’t afford it,” said Sebben.

“Could you afford it if you had a place to stay?” asked Laughlin. When Sebben answered yes, Laughlin saw to it that for two weeks every winter until he died in 1997, Mario and Joe Sebben stayed in Laughlin’s private studio apartment right at the base of Alta’s main chairlift.

“Whenever I came back to Canaan,” recalls Stebbens, “he always wanted to know what I thought of how things were going in Alta. Once I told him about a warming hut we had come across at the top of the Sugarloaf lift. It had an overcrowded eating area. The rest rooms were down a steep flight of stairs, which was tough going in ski boots.”

“So what should I do?” Laughlin asked.

“Make it bigger,” said Sebben. The next year, there was a big restaurant called Alf’s in its place, with rest rooms on the ground level.

Sebben is looking forward to vacationing in Alta later this winter with Joe, who is now married with children and working in Canaan as a landscaper. The two must pay for their stay there. But they are still anxious to return, in part because the skiing in Alta is so challenging, but also as a way of acknowledging Laughlin’s previous generosity.

At Mario’s these days, two or three customers are almost always waiting their turn. Adorning the walls around them are numerous antique farm implements and photos of old Canaan. The scene evokes a powerful sense of nostalgia, as if this were a cozy museum where cutting hair was incidental.

Here, in this setting where the past is plainly respected, James Laughlin of Norfolk is a still fondly remembered.  “He was a good listener,” says Sebben. “Down to earth. No airs. You’d never know he was rich. There were holes burned in his pants from his pipe. He was just a great man.”

Photo by Lloyd Garrison.