Oneida Street · Chadwicks, New York
1979–2019
Alice Puleo opened her salon in 1979. For forty years she and her daughter, Connie Griffin, cut, colored, permed and set the hair of Chadwicks and the Sauquoit Valley, and heard most of its news along the way.
The salon closed on Friday, December 27, 2019, with a holiday open house in Alice’s honor. This page remembers her, the shop, and the people who sat in its chairs.
The founder
Miss Alice
Alice was born in Frankfort, New York, in 1931, the daughter of Fargo and Emily. On February 10, 1951, she married Constantine “Tino” Puleo at St. Mary’s Church in Frankfort. They raised their family in Chadwicks and later Sauquoit, and were married for more than fifty years.
Before she became a cosmetologist, Alice worked at UNIVAC for twenty years. She took great pride in making her customers look and feel good, and many of them became like family. Outside the shop she bowled, sang, danced and went to the casino, and she was an outstanding cook of Italian and Armenian food. Her greatest joy was cooking for family and friends.
She belonged to the Altar Rosary Society at St. Patrick’s/St. Anthony’s, the Sauquoit Valley Lions Club and American Legion Post 1000. Long after she stopped working full days, she came in at least twice a week, as Connie wrote in 2012, “for the latest hairstyle and to keep us all in line!”
In May 2013, the salon wished her a happy 82nd birthday on its Facebook page: “Happy Birthday Mom, the angels are waiting for you to clip their wings!” Alice passed away a few days later, on May 11, 2013.
We love you, mom/grandma, “and don’t YOU forget it!”
- 1931Alice is born in Frankfort
- 1951Marries Tino Puleo, February 10
- 1979Opens Alice’s Beauty Salon in her home on Elm Street
- 2010Turns 79 at a party in the shop
- 2013Alice passed away on May 11 at age 82
- 2017Connie publishes The Roots of Our Community
- 2019Alice’s Beauty Salon closes on December 27 after 40 years
- 2021Connie retires in May
Mother and daughter
Connie
Connie Puleo Griffin worked beside her mother from the start. On the salon’s own website she described it simply: “a family partnership, run by Alice and daughter Connie Griffin.”
The customers talked, and Connie listened. Many of the stories in her book, The Roots of Our Community (2017), a history of Chadwicks and Willowvale, were first told to her from the salon chair. In the book she wrote that the forty years of serving others at Alice’s is what inspired her to finish it. It went on sale at the salon in July 2017, and in two weeks she sold well over 100 copies.
After Alice passed away, Connie kept the salon going, with a few stylists who joined her over the years.
I get called Alice at least once a week in the salon and it always makes me smile!
When the Oneida Street shop closed at the end of 2019, Connie rented a booth at Romeo & Juliet’s Salon on Kellogg Road in Washington Mills. She worked there part time, through the spring of 2020 when New York closed every salon for COVID-19, until she retired in May 2021.
It is official I am retired from the salon and moving into summer with my newfound joys; grandchildren and flowers.
Downtown Chadwicks
The shop on Oneida Street
Alice started the salon in her home on Elm Street. In 1980 it moved to Oneida Street in downtown Chadwicks, right next to the Ice Cream Factory, into a building that had been Reinhardt’s Store and Meat Market and later Brodt’s Pharmacy. The salon shared it with the dentist John Wisniewicz, Dr. Wiz to everyone at Alice’s. “There was no place like Alice’s with Dr. Wiz at our side and friends always coming through our doors,” Connie wrote in 2013.
Inside were barnwood walls, lavender doors, a row of hood dryers and a front window that was decorated for Christmas. Out front was a porch where everyone gathered to watch the Memorial Day parade.
Alice and Connie did all their own work: color, unisex haircuts, perms, and styling for weddings and other special days. They used Redken color and Paul Mitchell products, and kept a full shelf of retail for customers to take home.
Prices, 2016
- Men’s cuts
- $12.00
- Woman’s cut and style
- $20.00
- Shampoo & style
- $14.00
- Bangs only
- $5.00
- Weekly rinse
- $1.00 extra
- Clarifying or conditioning
- $5.00
- Color touch-up and cut
- $35.00
- Color enhancement
- $40.00
- Color with cut/style
- $50.00 & up
- Highlights, specialty color
- $60.00 & up
- Perming
- $50.00 & up
- Up-dos, special occasions
- $35.00 & up
- Hair removal, per area
- $6.00
“Now accepting credit cards!”
Hours, 2016
- Tuesday
- 9–12
- Wednesday
- 9–5
- Thursday
- 11–8
- Friday
- 9–5
- Saturday
- by appt.
Alice Puleo and Connie Griffin, cosmetologists
From the salon’s news page, 2011–2016
“Team Tino participated and raised a lot of money for the American Heart Run and Walk.”
“As always, we are a family business and welcome you and your family into our salon.”
“Wedding season is upon us and we will be planning our own family wedding for October.”
alicesbeautysalon.com
The website, as it once was
David built the salon’s website in Apple’s iWeb, and Connie kept its news page going: new stylists, haircuts for Locks of Love, the Heart Run, back-to-school specials and the season’s weddings. It had the hours, the price list, a page of photos and a slideshow.
Connie last updated it on June 7, 2016. It is preserved here as she left it, with the same pages, photos and fonts.
Holiday Open House
Friday, December 27, 2019
Connie closed the salon with a holiday open house. The flyer on the corkboard invited customers to “share our last day in our salon and pay tribute to our founder the queen Miss Alice.” The day before, she wrote on Facebook: “Tomorrow is our final day in the shop and we will have an open house til 3pm. Join us for a cup of cheer.” Family, friends and customers came from nine in the morning on.
At this moment all I can say is thank you to all who came by today and visited us at Alices Beauty Salon! Thank you to my family, my friends, my customers who are all also my friends for helping us celebrate 40 years. We did good!
From the customers
Memories
A letter on the wall
On the morning of the open house, a two-page letter hung on the barnwood wall. Dawn wrote it for Connie. Her mother, Irene, had been Alice’s friend since the salon’s first days in Alice’s home on Elm Street.
Mother spent more time with & at Alice’s, or almost as much, as she did at Church.
So many laughs, tears, and cups of coffee were shared between these 2 young ladies.
Alice’s Beauty Salon was love.
“Thanks for the Memories” – Bob Hope
Alice’s Beauty Salon has been & always will be a significant part of mom & my lives. My Mom, Irene, found more than a sanctuary there from the unpleasant times in her life, she found friendship, peace & joy. Picking up lunch for “the girls” from the Diner, or making sure there was enough coffee gave her a purpose & took her mind off her worries. It was hard to find a day when Irene didn’t “stop in” the Salon, between school bus runs. Friday nites were the “funnest,” often time picking up Tess, or Johanna S. &/or another lady for fish fry at Uptown Grill or Orchard Hall. We watched wedding parties & prom nights get beautified & the beginning of men getting their hair cut at a Salon instead of the Barber shop or kitchen table.
Read the rest of the letter
When Alice first started her Salon out of her home on Elm St, mother was there. Mother spent more time with & at Alice’s, or almost as much, as she did at Church. Going w/Alice to Salon functions & Beauty Seminars at BOCES and Albany was a mini vacation for Mom. So many laughs, tears, and cups of coffee were shared between these 2 young ladies.
More than the camaraderie at the Salon, Mother and Alice were sisters. Alice understood Irene & Irene was thankful & felt as if she was a part of the family (and she was). As Alice’s family grew so did the invitations to grandchildren’s weddings, Events at Orchard Hall (Bowling Banquet), Church picnics, not just Altar duty, Kiwanis functions, Team Tino fundraiser walks, July 4th celebration on the Hill & a Beautiful Retirement party for mom at Connie & John’s. Mother was also there for the sorrows & sadness: Tino & Denise ♡.
Connie you have continued to carry on your Mom’s talent, love of family & value of community. All of the Girls, Kathy, Maria, Sharon & Granddaughters carry Alice’s legacy ♡. I am sure when you turn off the lights & lock the Salon door for the last time there will be a tear in many eyes, along w/mine. Thank you for all you & your Mom did for me & Mom. We had the best of times there together with your family. Alice’s Beauty Salon was love.
So please know you are in my prayers, as Mother’s. Wishing you a beautiful new chapter & thanking you for all the memories I hold in my heart.
She closed with a few lines from the song “Goodnight, Irene.”
Hugs, Dawn
From the salon’s Facebook page, 2013–2021
“Remembering so well when Alice first opened the shop. I was one of her first clients. Fond memories of a wonderful lady and friend.”
“So many great & wonderful memories of the shop! The laughter, especially when Alice’s sisters would be there… Alice was so happy being a hairdresser, friend, & great lady.”
“My mom just loved her. She could have had her hair done at the home, but oh, no… she wanted to go to Alice, and so we did, and it made them both happy. A special friendship.”
“I will be forever grateful to Alice for taking me under her wing when I first started out. She was truly a special person.”
“Alice was an awesome mom & person!! I loved working at the shop!!”
“She lightened up a room with her presence.”
“Alice and Irene, two very special women.”
“A retirement MOST deserved! I will miss you and appreciate the time and love you gave all of us.”
“I’m sure there are tons of your clients that will miss you. I know I would be lost for words if my stylist went on retirement.”
“Love your warm, sweet hugs and kisses you give out.”
“Another home… so bittersweet.”
“Beautiful! We all miss her!”
“I see her smile in your smile, Connie!”
“Mother’s (and my) best days were at Alice’s. If Mother missed a day stopping in to say ‘Hi’ to the girls, grab a cup of coffee, or get lunch from the Diner, in between her school bus runs, then it must have been a snow day, and Alice’s was closed.”
“I miss her so much!”
“You were blessed to have her.”
“Miss Alice!!!”
“It’s tearful to think no more Alice or Alice’s but the lives touched and the memories made because of our “Alice” can never be replaced.”
“This is so bittersweet, and yes, we do have so much to be thankful for… but what great memories Alice’s has given us!”
“I remember growing up there… literally. Every Tuesday morning was my day there with Grandma. From haircuts, to our first perms, to our first colors… every back to school haircut. It all happened at Alice’s.”
Share a memory
Were you a customer? Did Alice or Connie do your hair for a wedding, a prom, or every week for thirty years? We are collecting memories of the salon to share here.