Bisiness
Going
To
Ar• 4014 :1:-;
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Pearl and Ron Scissors
Pearl and Ron Scissors own a cutting-edge
belt-buckle store in Berkley.
Motor
City belt
buckles
DEBBIE L. SKLAR SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
hat do a swimming pool heater and men's
ties have in common? Nothing, except when
you're talking about Pearl Scissors of Oak
Park, who has been selling belt buckles for
nearly 30 years and is known by many as
Mrs. Buckles, her citizens band radio han-
dle.
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34
Inside are some special belt buckles.
Confused? There's no reason to be. Mrs.
Scissors, 64, and her husband of 46 years,
Ron Scissors, 66, own Buckles Unlimited,
a small store on Coolidge in Berkley. An es-
timated 3,500 buckles are on display there.
Mrs. Scissors, who was born and raised
in Detroit, began the business in 1967 when
she decided she wanted to purchase a $650
heater for her 24-foot, above-ground swim-
ming pool at the couple's home in Oak Park.
"I started making men's ties and tak-
ing them to craft shows to raise enough
money to buy the heater," Mrs. Scissors
said. "At the time, it was really difficult to
find masculine prints. I remember going to
New York once and spending $1,200 on
men's fabrics.
"I got to be known as the tie lady, but one
day someone at a show asked if I had belt
buckles. I thought it was a good idea, so I
started selling them.
"It turned out to be easier to sell buckles
than ties. At the time, Nehru jackets were
becoming really big and people didn't have
to wear a tie with those."
Mrs. Scissors never did get that pool
heater. In 1974, she and her husband, a cer-
tified public accountant and computer whiz,
opened their Coolidge store.
These days, Mr. Scissors designs special
buckles for Shriners that the couple sells
at nearly a dozen shows across the coun-
try. Mr. Scissors, himself a Shriner, also de-
signs lapel pins for Shriners units. Thou-
sands of small boxes throughout the
Berkley store attest to the pins' populari-
ty.
The couple travels to Shrine shows from
May through September in their recently
revamped motor home. Last year, they jour-
neyed to places like Biloxi, Miss.; St. Louis;
Virginia Beach, Va.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.;
and Arkansas.
"It's great to travel," said Mrs. Scissors,
who breeds schnauzers in her spare time.
"The motor home has everything but a
shower. The license plate on the front reads:
'We're on the road again."'
At the Berkley store, buckles start at $15
and pins start at $1. The store also sells a
selection of leather belts. The Scissors will
do custom belt-buckle work starting at
$125.
"I think people like us because they can
trust us," Mrs. Scissors said. "Also, we sell
quality stuff We don't sell junk. Best of all,
though, we have a ball doing what we're do-
ing."
"When we started our lives together, we
didn't have anything," Mr. Scissors said.
"We had a $15 room we rented and that
was it. We've earned everything we have
today and we've had fun doing it. We have
a very good life." ❑