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EARL GUENTHER
(Florida)
I went into Earl's Barber Shop in
Palatka for a haircut. Its walls lined with mirrors; barber chairs,
calendars, church schedules, shoeshine chair, and polished cuspidors. A
partition separated it from a beauty parlor in the rear.
Earl Guenther, the owner, waited on me. A talkative, heavy-set man, six
foot tall, with a ruddy complexion and reddish hair, he did not work in
the usual white coat, but in shirt sleeves with his collar open at the
throat.
"Stranger in town? Thought so, never seen you round," he spoke with a
slight drawl. "This is a good little town--progressive. We manage to make
a living and still have time to hunt and fish."
It was a simple thing to get his life history--he liked to talk.
"I'm no native. I was born in Dayton Ohio, March 23, 1897. My father was
Irish and my mother English. Their grandfathers came from Massachusetts
into the Ohio valley, early in the eighteenth century, and settled right
where Dayton stands today. I may be an Ohioan by birth all right, but I'm
a Florida cracker by emigration and adoption.
"I went to Buckeye Grammar School in Dayton and worked on my Dad's farm
before and after school. We had a big farm and there was always plenty to
do. I entered Stivers High School when I was fourteen. Dad didn't believe
in me going to college, so when I finished high school, he gave me a job
in the shop. I've wished since that I'd gone on to college, but didn't
think much about it then.
"I was glad to get away from farm chores and couldn't wait to be a barber
as good as my Dad. For the first year I swept floors, shined shoes, washed
windows, polished cuspidors and lathered faces, all for $2 a week. I
watched all the time and eventually I was allowed to use the clippers or
scissors on one of the barbers during slack hours. It was another year
before I was allowed to shave anyone.
"Barbers have come a long way since then. Now we have regular barber
colleges in most of the larger cities, where you not only learn to shave
people and cut hair, but you're taught the science of treating the hair,
scalp, and face. I've visited the Jacksonville Barber College and they
have eighteen chairs where the students get actual experience. The first
two chairs give you a shave and haircut for about two bits, the next four
for twenty cents. The price decreases as you get farther back in the shop.
In the last two chairs they don't charge anything and usually give you a
bag of candy as consolation.
"Barbering is more of a science all right; new methods are going to
revolutionize the business. We feel that our treatments are as much for
relaxation as for looks. "You know the history of that striped pole out
front of barber shops? Well, in the sixteenth century barbers did almost
everything. They did minor surgical operations, bled people, pulled teeth,
trimmed hair, and sharpened knives. When a barber went to a house, you
couldn't tell by the way he dressed or the tools he carried if he had come
to shave the master or inspect the plumbing. The striped pole is said to
have originated from a pole in front where the barbers hung their bloody
bandages to dry. The wind blew them, winding them diagonally around the
pole.
"Yes things have changed and so have prices. In Miami during the boom, in
1925-26, I used to get a dollar for a haircut and a dollar for a shave.
The soap we had wasn't half as nice as this one but we did a land-office
business because everybody was so busy making money they didn't have time
to shave themselves. I made good money, invested it in land and got caught
in the crash.
"After the collapse of the land boom in '26, I started back to Dayton. I
stopped off here to visit some relatives and liked it so much I decided to
stay. I thought the town needed another barber shop, so I opened up this
place, and I've been here thirteen years.
"Soon after I opened, a girl came and wanted to rent the back of the shop
for a beauty parlor. Two years later, she thought if I'd marry her she
wouldn't have to pay rent. I fooled her. I married her and now she has to
pay half the rent on the whole business and I've still got the best half.
Imagine a man going through a beauty parlor to get back to the barber
shop.
"The barbers in this town have a set price to exclude unfair competition.
I don't make anything like I used to--about half as much, I'd say--but
then it only takes half as much to live here.
"At that we make a pretty fair income. The first year after paying out for
salaries, supplies, equipment and living expenses, I found that I'd
managed to save about a hundred dollars. Since that time we have got
equipment paid for and have managed to bank about fifty dollars a month as
an average. We both pay income tax.
"We take a month off every summer when things are slow and go up north for
a visit. I usually spend a couple of weeks in and around Dayton with
relatives and the other two weeks off touring somewhere.
"I'm always glad to get back no matter how long I'm gone. My wife can't
stand the north. It's not the climate so much as the people and the
customs. She's a Palatka girl, born and raised right here in the South,
and can't stand a bossy Negro. When one crosses her up north, well,--she
has a pretty hot temper, Ruth has.
"We don't have any children, but her nephew lives with us and goes to the
local high school. He is a junior now and a star on the football team. He
plays half-back and is slated to be next year's varsity captain.
"Besides the nephew, we've got two Chows, a Boston Bull and couple of
canaries. We live in our own house, right near here. It's only a five room
bungalow but it's nice. We drive a Chevrolet sedan and manage to get a new
one every year. That's the best way to buy cars, because you always got a
liberal allowance on the one you turn in if it's well taken care of and
the dealer knows what he's getting back. By the time you had new tires and
minor repairs made on your last year model you would have spent enough to
pay the difference between automobiles.
"My wife and I go out a great deal. We
usually see a show a week and always go the high school athletic games.
They're all played at night because the football field and baseball park
are lighted, and so we never miss. Because of our support and
contributions to the athletic association we're invited to the annual
football banquet, given in honor of the departing seniors.
"My wife has her bridge club and I belong to several civic and fraternal
organizations. We are all working together right now to do what we can
about getting an appropriation through Congress this session for the
completion of the Florida Ship Canal. It will come down the St. John's
River right by here and on to a point twelve miles below town where it
will turn across the state.
"I was one of the delegates to meet the Harbor and River Committee from
Washington that came down here last week. We waited all afternoon for them
and finally about dark met them nine miles above here on the river with a
convoy of boats. They came down from Jacksonville on a private speed boat
and went from here to Ocala by car. If we get the canal it will shorten
sailing time to New Orleans, Galveston and other parts in the Gulf by
cutting out the trip around the Florida Straights. It would take so many
of those heavy trucks off the roads. They are ruin-the state highways and
because of their size make it dangerous to drive on the road during the
citrus season. A boy by the name of Powell was killed last week, just
north of here, when his car ran into the rear of one of those trucks
parked on the highway."
"Do you go to church, Earl?" I asked.
"Well we live a pretty leisured life around here," he replied. "I don't
miss many Sunday nights at the Methodist church, but I spend most Sundays
fishing.
"Everybody hunts and fishes and lets things take their course. Besides
Sundays I take a couple of afternoons a week off, when the weather's
right. The hunting was punk last fall on account of the dryness. The
fishing this year ought to be good enough to make up for it, though. The
equinox has just passed and the fish will feed good all day between the
new moon and first quarter. I caught a roe (female) bass this spring on an
artificial plug that tipped the scales at better than thirteen pounds and
that was just after spawning season. With an average roe she would have
weighed fifteen pounds or better. The state champion prize winner only
came to a little better than fourteen pounds.
"Do you vote? "I interrupted.
"You bet I do," he switched topics easily. "I always vote a straight
Democratic ticket but can't afford to express my opinions about local
politics. I have so many customers that ask me what I think about this
person for Mayor or that person for Commissioner. I immediately change the
subject if I can."
He brushed me off and as I got into my coat he said, "Ever hear of James
Ross Mellon, the late steel magnate from Pittsburgh, spent every winter
for ever forty years in his home here. About 1938 he fired the butler that
always shaved him and trimmed his hair and I got the job. Used to invite
my wife and myself to his home here and we always spent a few days with
him when we went north. Great fellow. He had retired from business and had
plenty of time, and he'd take us everywhere and introduce us around like
we were Astors or Vanderbilts.
I thanked him for the interview and started for the door, he called after
me, "Mister, be sure and see our Ravine Gardens before you leave town. It
only costs 40¢ and there's eighty-five acres planted in all sorts of
flowers, mostly azaleas."
February 7, 1938
Earl Guenther (white)
708 Lemon Street
Palatka, Florida
Barber
Bill Dowda, writer
Evelyn Werner, reviser
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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