When Tom Menino took over for Ray Flynn as Boston’s mayor, he didn’t just get a new job, he got a new barber.
It was all thanks to a 7News photographer who suggested Menino look up Johnny Cammarata and get a haircut in the heart of the North End.
“He told me ‘there was only one barber who gave me a hair cut in my life and he died, how long are you going to live for?’ and I said ‘I’ll live for as long as you live, how’s that.’ So he said we had a deal,” Cammarata said.
A framed picture sits on the wall signed by Menino years ago.
“He always used to say john I’m not looking to be president I’m not looking to be a governor or any big politician, I love being mayor and serving the people of Boston that kind of talk,” Cammarata said.
Early on the mayor used to walk over to get his hair cut, but as the years went by he got more popular and started to use a driver.
But Menino never expected special treatment according to Johnny’s partner who cut the mayor’s hair in the last few years.
“When he come in people never felt uncomfortable. He made everyone very easy and comfortable, he spoke with everybody, kids, he took pictures with anyone. He was a normal person,” Gino Colafella said.
News of Menino’s death hits the barbers hard.
“Deeply sad very said I never expected that to happen to him he’s a man that should have lived forever,” Cammarata said.
“I don’t look at him like a mayor. Like a person, like a friend, like a father. He’ll be missed,” Colafella said.