THE POOR TOWN NEWS
Pictures and Short Stories from the PoorTown eBook
© 2002 James D. Pearce and Rebecca P. Pearce

Number 36
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This Week's Picture

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Admiring the four-legged favorite at Cellie Parker's farm
near Murfreesboro in the early 1920s

Supporting cast includes Cellie Parker, left,
Thelma Leonhirth Parker (Sewell), center,
and Elmo Parker, husband of Cellie

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This Week's Story

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THE BARBERS THREE

© 2001 Rebecca Parker Pearce

The barber shop in Murfreesboro had only had its third barber for about a month now.

Seba had started the place, and the cutting was so good that before long he had to bring in a second chair and get another fellow, Walter Dale, to come in and help him ~ working on "halves," with Seba getting the rakeoff for providing the tonsorial equipment and the roof over their heads.

But the popularity of the little shop continued to grow.

Not only as a place to spend two-bits to get a good haircut and a shave, but as a retreat for the town's males from the world of work and worries ~ which in the early '30s was coming up a whole lot less work and a whole lot more worries.

So Seba had to go 'way over to Chowan County and find another fellow to come in and help him and Walter cope with the growing crowd of males lining up in the chairs along the wall and on the benches along the front window. That's how Willie White came to town.

Now the barber shop had three fellows working behind the chairs, and except for the big mill at the river which had a hundred or so fellows showing up trying to get a day's work making baskets now and then, it had become about one of the largest employers in the little town. It was right up there in a class with Wynn Bros. Department Store and the Pure Food Market, which also had around three or so employees each.

Hair cutting and shaving weren't the only things that went on at the barber shop, however.

It also was home to a select social crowd and served as the seat of the town's main discussion group, and was the place you went to find what the new "news" was on the six days of the week when The Hertford County Herald didn't come out.

Elmo was one of the leaders of the discussion group and also aided mightily in the distribution of the day's news.

Sometimes, you might say, he even dominated the conversation when Seba was busy shaving somebody or engaged in trimming a particularly thick head. Elmo, nor anyone else, could dominate the word-play when Seba wasn't otherwise fully engaged because Seba was one of those fellows who not only knew everything about anything but could and would talk the shoes off a mule.

Once, when Clem, Elmo and the crowd were sitting around talking things over ~ and Seba was busy with his straight razor ~ Bud, the new mechanic over at Hill Chevrolet, came in and got in the waiting line in the seats over against the wall.

Bud really didn't know which barber he wanted to wait for, however, and in a low voice, he communicated this fact to Clem and Elmo ~ asking them for their opinion as to the best chair to choose.

Elmo quickly seized the opportunity to enlighten him.

"Well," he said, "if you want a fair haircut and want to know everything about everything in this county and the next, and in the state and the world, go to Seba Underwood.

"If you just want a good haircut and don't care too much about what's going on in the world, go to Walter Dale.

"If you don't give a dern about haircuts or anything else either," said Elmo, "then go to Willie."

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Seba's broad field of knowledge and his readiness to share it with all comers was so well known in the town that even the little children were aware of his awesome range.

Eddie, about 9 or 10, was the son of Joice's sister Ella. He wasn't particularly fond of school.

"Mama," he said one day, "why didn't you marry Mr. Seba Underwood instead of marrying daddy?"

"Why, Eddie, what on earth makes you ask a question like that?" said his mom.

"Well," said Eddie, "Mr. Seba ~ he knows everything ~ and if you had married him instead of daddy, then Mr. Seba would have been my daddy ~

"And then he could have told me everything ~ and then I wouldn't have to go to school."

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Barnes Bros. Barber Shop, Murfreesboro 2001

Elmo always liked to hang out
at the barber shop

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This Week's Verse

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Make way for the best man in this city!
Hurrying to his shop, now that it's morning!
Ah, isn't life good? How pleasant it is
For a barber of quality!

Ah, hooray for Figaro!
Bravo, bravissimo!
How fortunate to be so lucky!
Ready for anything, night and day,
Always busy and aware of everything.
A better lot for a barber,
a better life, cannot be found, no, not at all.

Razors and combs,
Lancets and scissors,
At my command
Are all here.
And there are extras, then, for the business
With the ladies ...... with the gentlemen ......
With the ladies ...... with the gentlemen ......
Ah, isn't life good? How pleasant it is
For a barber of quality!

Figaro! Here I am.
Eh, Figaro! Here I am. Figaro here, Figaro there,
Figaro up, Figaro down.
Quicker and quicker the sparks fly with me,
Because I am the best man in this city!
Ah, bravo Figaro!
Bravo, bravissimo;
From you luck will never leave.

("The Barber of Seville" ~ Gioacchino Rossini)

The foregoing lines probably would rhyme
better if they were in Italian, but that
would make them hard to read

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This Week's Fable

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"You know, Elmo," said Clem, "When I was a little boy, I always kinda wanted to go up to New York City."

"New York City?" said Elmo, "Why in the world would you want to go up to New York, Clem?"

"Well," said Clem, "We were mighty poor. I never did have any money.

"And I used to read in The New York Daily News (see note below) that there was this fellow John D. Rockefeller up there who'd walk up and down the street, passing out dimes to poor folks.

"And I always felt like that if I could just get up to New York," said Clem, "I could walk up and down the street, too, and maybe I might run up with Mr. Rockefeller ~ and maybe I'd get me a dime."

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(A note from the editor of The Poor Town News: For those who might find it hard to believe, a two-or-three-day-old copy of The New York Daily News could be purchased at Walker-Holloman Drug Store in Ahoskie in the '30s and early '40s for the grand sum of TWO CENTS. It was a tabloid and made for some good reading. Certainly was two-cents worth. I was such an admirer of the NY Daily News that when a couple of other fellows and I came up with the brainstorm of starting a daily newspaper for the Roanoke-Chowan section in 1947, we not only stole the NY paper's name for The Roanoke-Chowan Daily News, but we copied its size, layout, politics and typefaces as well. Curious readers can verify this by looking at a few salvaged early copies on microfilm at the Chowan College Library. Problem was, it was hard to slice up the newsprint to tabloid size on the 1910-vintage Goss Duplex letterpress, and we kept jamming the folder and breaking the "webs." After a general collapse of advertising support in 1949 and 1950, (and the birth of a son), my wife and I had to desert our erstwhile partners and move away to try to make a living elsewhere ~ leaving F. Roy Johnson to do most of the fretting with the balky Goss. After a year or so, he gave up on the tabloid format, and went back to the full-page size for which the old press really was designed. The problem with that was ~ where we at least had eight pages daily and looked like a midget NY Daily News, he then was left with only four big pages, and that didn't make a very impressive-looking news sheet. Looked sort of like The Tarboro Daily Southerner, to tell the truth. So after a few years even F. Roy gave up and sold out to Parker Bros., and The Daily Roanoke-Chowan News was folded into history. ~ Jim Pearce)

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This Week's Mailbox

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To the Poor Town News ~ Great web page! I laughed reading of Elmo's great escape to avoid leading the congregation in prayer. I have been surfing trying to find information on the circumstances in which a young man during WWII could get out of enlisting in the military. Years ago a relative spoke of a fellow that wanted to get married so he would not have to enlist. Do you know about that type of situation, or where I might find the info? I am writing a story that involves such a fellow and want it to be believable. ~ S. Kelsay, Miller County, Missouri.

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To the Poor Town News ~ I read your No. 35. It is interesting. Keep 'em coming. Am forwarding it to my daughter. She likes historical stuff. ~ Oscar Trent, Central NC.

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To the Poor Town News ~ I have changed my ISP, but don't want to miss an issue of The Poor Town News. Please change my address. Since the first issue arrived, I look forward to it each week. Please keep up the good work that brings hours of enjoyment to so many. ~ Jeanette White, Eastern NC.

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To the Poor Town News ~ I truly believe that these stories should be required reading when the Civil War is being studied at various levels in public schools. The picture of the "coloreds" all standing along the river's edge gives a sense of what it must have been like for them. Further, the writer being dismayed that a black person actually gets paid when he works should generate some great discussions. ~ Aggie Green, Michigan.

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To the Poor Town News ~ I enjoy your letters and stories on the Civil War in Northeastern North Carolina. Our area, from Southeastern Virginia down to the Beaufort area in Carteret County, NC, was virtually "behind enemy lines," depending on which side your ancestors fought for. I am from the Juniper Bay area on the Pamlico Sound in Hyde County. In some families, your ancestors could have been both sides, like mine. For anyone who might be interested, Charley Barnes (host of the Tyrrell Co., NCGenWeb Site) and I, with the assistance of volunteers, have set up web sites for the 1st and 2nd NC Union Volunteers and the four regiments of US Colored Troops formed in Eastern NC. Also, for anyone interested in the Native Americans who lived in our area before the English of Raleigh's settlements arrived on Roanoke, please visit The Algonkians of Coastal Carolina. Keep up the great work. ~ John McGowan, Eastern NC.

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