Laughter spills out onto Mt. Diablo Boulevard as another regularopens the door to Mastro's Barber Shop. Inside, the usual suspectsplay poker while ribbing owner Vincent Mastro for once againbutchering a joke and its punch line.
The elderly barber puts the card game on hold to seat his client,while bringing his joker mentality with him.
'He'd always play practical jokes on people and get me in on it.I'd act like I was getting ready to spill something on them. We'dalways plot those things together,' remembered grandson RobertMastro, 23, who swept hair in his grandfather's shop at a youngerage. 'I'll most miss his wisdom in playing poker and the jokes heplayed on everybody.'
The 85-year-old patriarch died Feb. 16 of an apparent heartattack. His daughter Diane Seguine, 63, who lives in San Mateo, saidhe passed peacefully in his sleep at San Mateo Convalescent Hospitalafter decades of suffering from cardiovascular disease. Mastro hadbeen living in the facility since the summer of 2007.
'He had a good life. He was high-fiving and flirting with thegirls in the care facility up until the last day,' laughed son LouisMastro, 57, who grew up in Walnut Creek and now lives in Sonora. 'Hewas famous. He opened the second barber shop in Walnut Creek.Everybody knew him. And whoever knew him had to love him.'
Mastro had moved from his hometown of Cleveland to Walnut Creekwith his wife Ann and two children in 1960. (Ann died in 2006)
The first-generation Sicilian-American comes from a long line ofbarbers. And just like he did in the Midwest and a short stint inArizona, Mastro opened another barber shop in Walnut Creek, whichbecame a hair cutting hot spot for the next 40 years.
'He would get up at 5:30 in the morning to cut someone's haireven when his shop didn't open till 9 a.m.,' Louis said. 'He hadsome pretty prominent clients -- anyone from big-time sportsmanagers and basketball players to CEOs and presidents of bigcorporations.'
Some of Mastro's clients included St. Louis Cardinals ManagerTony La Russa, Jr.; former San Francisco Giants Manager Bill Rigney,who also did color commentary for Oakland Athletics games in the1980s; and a few famous athletes.
But it's the time Mastro spent as a photographer in the Air Forceand Air Corps during World War II may prove his lasting legacy. JimGarcia, 74, first met Mastro on a visit to his barber shop. Aquarter of a century later, dozens of war stories had been sharedand a close friendship formed.
'Vincent enlisted in the service at 18, 5-foot-4 1/2 and 142pounds. He also had the first segment of his index finger missing sohe couldn't shoot rifles. They put him in photography school inMassachusetts for training and to photograph planes taking off andlanding for pilot evaluation,' said Garcia, also a longtime WalnutCreek resident. 'It was after Christmas in 1943 when they shippedhim off to England to join a fighter squadron to support General(George S.) Patton in World War II.'
Garcia further explained when fighter planes attacked atNormandy, France in 1944, gun cameras would 'shoot' pictures of thedestruction on the ground and help with mayday training. Mastrodeveloped this sort of film before heading into Germany withPatton's army to document the horrific accounts that took place inthe Nazi war camps during the liberation of its prisoners.
'He first documented the insides of the buildings Germans hadtaken over during the war -- finding millions of dollars, bricks ofgold and royal jewels all from the countries Germany had invaded andthe Jews they encamped and killed,' said Garcia, who got most ofthese stories from Mastro during bi-monthly visits to the barbershop and many lunch meetings to follow. 'Then it started getting alot darker.
'Vincent was in his early 20s, going into these death camps anddocumenting the horrors that took place. He also went into Austria,photographing the disgusting crimes against humanity there,' Garciaadded. 'He saw some pretty awful things. His memory was a bitsketchy reliving the details. It may have been because he didn'twant to remember.'
Those photos helped prosecute the prominent members of thepolitical, military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany afterits defeat in World War II from 1945 to 1946 -- otherwise known asthe Nuremberg Trials. Garcia said Mastro did not know this tillyears after the trials ended, but was proud to help 'bring inevidence against those who committed such crimes against humanity.'
