Growing up in Statesville, Mike Wallace somehow ended up surrounded by barbers. From friends to neighbors to relatives, everyone was going down that career path. Out to drinks with one of those friends one night, they suggested he join them. I come down the next week and signed up to go to barber school on a whim. I had never given it a thought. I ve never forgiven him for that, Wallace said, joking.Wallace immediately started chuckling, admitting he d probably be working alongside his friend at his barbershop if he still lived in Statesville.Instead, the 72-year-old is constantly cracking himself up as he works at Hawthorne Barber Shop. His first day at the Winston-Salem shop was on March 15, 1967 just four days after graduating from barber school.The shop opened in 1929 on Hawthorne Street, making it the longest operating barbershop in the city. It moved to its Burke Street location a few years after Wallace started working there. He s been cutting hair behind the same ch