MOULTRIE, Ga. – One of the last of what he says is a dying breed, Dennis Fast is putting away his clippers and shears for good.

Fast, who is just the second operator of the barber shop on First Avenue Southeast that has been in operation since 1942, is selling out to John McDaniel of Adel and is heading to the north Georgia mountains.

“I’m going to miss the people,” Fast said recently in the two-chair shop where he has cut hair and exchanged stories and confidences with patrons for 35 years. “I love them and I think they’ve loved me.

“I hope that the love they shared with me they’ll share with John.”

When George Hanna opened the business in 1942, First Avenue Southeast was still a dirt road lined with beautiful homes, including the one next door to the shop where Hanna lived.

Just a few blocks from downtown Moultrie, Hanna’s business thrived and is the oldest business on First Avenue, Fast says.

But in the early 1980s, Hanna was ready to sell and found a buyer in Fast, who had operated a shop of six barbers in Tulsa, Okla., before moving to Colquitt County.

Fast had been running the Magic Palace game room across town when he bought the shop in 1983 and hung out the shingle proclaiming it Shear Genius.

And while downtown was busy, especially on Saturdays, so was Fast.

For several years, C.W. Southerland handled one of the chairs.

“You could make a week’s salary on Saturday,” Fast says.

Moultrie was also home to other barber shops over the years, including one in the Colquitt Hotel and another in the 100 block of First Avenue Southeast. Hamm’s Barber Shop operates on Rowland Drive.

But as many retail businesses moved out of downtown, Saturdays were not as busy. And fewer men and boys got their hair cut beneath the red, white and blue striped barber’s pole.

Once standing behind the chair six days a week, Fast now opens his red door only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

And fewer men are learning the trade and getting licenses.

There are few white barbers in the area. There are two in Thomasville, he says. One in Pelham. Another in Camilla.

But he still has a loyal clientele, including a number of men who come from out of town.

“John will have them come from Ashburn, Boston, Tifton, Valdosta,” Fast says. “I’ve got one coming in this afternoon from Atlanta.”

And they will sit in one of two chairs that Hanna bought used when he opened the shop 75 years ago. They have undergone some refurbishing over the years, but still have the original leather backs. So do the chairs that patrons sit and chat in while awaiting their turn.

Now known as Dennis the Barber, the shop is decorated with old photos of Moultrie barber shops of the past, one of which shows four men, shears in hand, behind customers. There are old football programs in frames, yellowing front pages of The Moultrie Observer and a rack of recent magazines.

Fast says he expects McDaniel to do fine.

Colquitt County’s Chet Powell, the former manager of Reed Bingham State Park, brought him to Fast’s attention.

“If Chet recommended him, I knew he had to be OK,” Fast says.

McDaniel is no stranger to Colquitt County. His father works at Windstream and he remembers lacing up skates at Freckles as a youngster.

He learned to cut hair at the technical school in Valdosta and has spent the last eight years working in Tallahassee.

He is eager to be back full-time in South Georgia.

Fast is just as eager to join his wife Ella in Sky Valley.

Ella Fast retired eight months ago as Moultrie’s city clerk. She has taken a job as the assistant city manager in Sky Valley and her husband is tiring of the 600-mile round trip to be with her.

When he moves permanently to Rabun County near the North Carolina line, he leaves big boots to fill.

Many of those who have sat beneath his cape have become more than simply customers to Dennis Fast. After 35 years on Moultrie’s busiest thoroughfare, he has swept up the hair of several generations of Colquitt countians.

“People are comfortable coming in here,” he says. “They are like family after a while. You laugh with them, you cry with them. I’ve made a good living here, but the relationships are worth way more than the money. “

So it has been difficult in recent weeks, telling so many customers — make that friends — good-bye.

“When I shake their hands, it’s all I can do to keep from crying,” he says.