This week's Patch Portraits also features Morton Grove's bookworm nurturer and Northbrook's historical whiz.

Jerry's Barber Shop on Green Bay Road has been a testament to the barbering business since the 1940's. While the shop has changed hands several times, its interior remains a timeless snapshot.

And according to owner Vivian Arkelious, that's the way customers like it. "They don't want me to change a thing," said Arkelious. "They like it to look the way it always looked, like back in the fifties."

Earlier: Check out all the Patch Portrait archives.

Arkelious said that many customers like the old-school cut and shave they can get at her shop. "The women they like it on their husbands, and the mothers they like it on their sons," she told Patch.

Arkelious purchased the shop nearly a decade ago after immigrating to the United States from Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, in which her family lost a number of members. Arkelious' brother, Larry who owns Larry's Barber Shop on Ridge Road in Wilmette, encouraged her to follow in his foot steps and buy the Green Bay Road location.

Arkelious said she likes Wilmette because it is a close-knit community. "We know a lot of these people a long time." she said, "It's a very close community, very social people.They are so like a family."