By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Baseball pennants, college sports, Beatles and movie posters and a jukebox that plays oldies.
It feels a little like a sports bar, but these are barber chairs, not barstools.
Benny Peters opened his barber shop at 126 S. Front St. on Saturday in conjunction with the ninth Ice Time Festival in the former home of two restaurants, Coby Jack's and Rock and Roll Cafe.
Opening on ice festival day "just happened," Peters said.
Peters graduated from Union High School in 1998 and has been a barber for five years with Barry Gardner's Bear's Den across Front Street.
Growing up, he remembers getting haircuts at Bear's Den or at Emmett Kempton's in the basement beneath I. Oppenheim men's store.
He's not sure what influenced him to attend Lansing Barber College, but Benny has definite ideas about barbering, which when long hair was fashionable appeared on the verge of extinction.
There is a rear room he intends to convert into a lounge with a pool table and a couch.
As a Chieftain, Peters played baseball, football and basketball.
He left Bear's Den a couple of weeks ago and logged some long hours the past few days getting his shop ready to open.
Benny's hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, 8 to 6 Tuesday through Friday and 8 to 2 on Saturdays. He can be contacted at 782-8304.