The year was 1964. Lyndon Johnson was president, the Beatles first appeared on the Billboard Charts with “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” the United States was in the midst of the Vietnam War and Lawrence Knoeb Sr. opened Larry’s Barber Shop in the Lake Hills neighborhood of Bellevue.

The Knoeb family still is cutting hair and will mark its golden anniversary and show appreciation to its customers with a celebration and open house from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The shop shares a storefront at the corner of 145th Place Southeast and Southeast 16th Street. In the mid-1970s, when men began wearing perms, Beautiful People Salon was added in the back.

When Larry Sr. first opened his doors, he had no idea he was starting not only a family business, but also a Bellevue institution.

“I never expected my kids to come and work with me,” Knoeb said, but both son, Lawrence (Larry) Jr. and daughter, LaRae Bauman, both having planned different careers, still work side by side with their father. When granddaughter Mandy (her mother is Larry Sr.’s daughter, Deana) graduates from school in September, she’ll join them to make it three generations. Now that LaRae has graduated as a medical assistant, working at Group Health, she cuts hair part time.

Larry Jr. believes the shop’s family values and ties are what have kept customers coming to Larry’s Barber Shop for so many years. Many regular customers have been coming back for over 45 years.

“People know us and we know them so it really is personal service for us. We’ve been around for a long time and our customers are like our family.” Larry Jr. said.

Customers say they like Larry’s classic barber shop feel, with leather swivel chairs and a no corporation-chain feel. Barber shop customers need no appointment.

Whether or not the shop the family tradition is undecided. Larry Jr.’s son and daughter, still living at home, have yet to graduate from high school and his oldest daughter lives in Spokane with her own family; none so far have expressed a desire to continue in the family business. LaRae’s own three sons are going in other directions as well, so she also doubts they will take an interest in cutting hair.

But then, that’s what LaRae once said of herself and she’s been with the shop now for 24 years – and counting.