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ATTLEBORO - Al Hallal was looking to buy a Christmas tree on Route 1 in South Attleboro 46 years ago, when he ran into an old baseball buddy from their days at East Pawtucket High School.

They got to talking, and Hallal mentioned he was looking for a place to rent to set up shop as a barber.

The friend said he had a small storefront available at 946 Washington St. in South Attleboro.

Hallal has been there ever since.

"I opened on that chair on Feb. 20, 1962, with John Glenn going around this Earth three times. That's how I remember it," he said, referring to the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the planet. At the close of business today, however, all Hallal will have of his South Attleboro shop is memories.

The building is being torn down to make way for a gas station and Hallal is being forced to move his business to Cumberland, R.I.

The move means South Attleboro will be losing a place where generations of men came to hangout, share jokes and argue politics.

Hallal said his shop was like the set of the former TV show "Cheers."

Customers loved to pour out their hearts there. Hallal said his shop sometimes resembled the confessional at St. Teresa's Church, down the corner.

"The things barber hear. I've heard every story there is," he said.

Sports, especially the Red Sox, were a favorite topic.

"The landlord was a Yankee fan, and he always gave us the business - until the Red Sox won the World Series," he said.

Hallal had no clients, only friends. And there was always an "act" going on, he said.

"We had a lot of fun," he said. There were also the down times.

His Village Barber Shop almost became one of the 3,000 that went out of business in the 1970s when long hair became the style.

"When the Beatles and long hair came in, we couldn't sell a haircut for $1," he said.

One of the last holdouts who still gave old-fashioned hair cuts, Hallal finally gave in and went back to school in 1973 to learn how to style hair.

"The minute I put the sign up 'hair styling,' business picked up. But, we suffered before that," he said.

History was viewed through the prism of the Village Barber Shop.

There was the September day in 2001 when a man came running in the shop, yelling to turn on the television because an airplane had hit the World Trade Center tower in New York.

There was another day November in 1963 when the shop went silent when the news came that President Kennedy had been shot and killed.

"Everyone remembers where they were that day," he said.

But today, Hallal is closing up shop and moving to Broad Street in Cumberland, where he hopes customers will follow him.

Retirement, at age 77, is not something he will consider.

"I still enjoy cutting hair. I still enjoy the people. I haven't fulfilled my destiny yet," he said.

The shop has been his home away from home for almost half a century, but he gives no hint of sadness.

"I would feel bad if I didn't have a place to go. I'll still have the company of my friends," he said.