fr'ackvilj - personal.psu.edu

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FR'ACKVILJFRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1975

®lb 1J1rnckuille IDttks© 1975- hl1tGorraint ~tanton

Jack Richardson's Buck Horn Tonsorial Shoppictured in 1914.At left is the Mastella·Storewhich sold groceries, cigars and candy. The bench at right was sponsored by Stern's One-Price Clothier. Roy Thomas is the gentleman on the photo. These' buildings were laterdismantled and the Russell Planchyk 5&10and vacant building next door are located onthe site ..

Roy W. Thomas, 31 South WylamStreet has been a barber in town for 47years. He wasbolJ! at QOw,near StoneMountain Manor'out moved to Frack-ville with his family when he was sixmonths old. His first home in town wasat 2 North Railroad Avenue but thisdwellinghas since been demolished. Helived on North Broad Mountain Avenuefor a short time when his father thenbuilt a home at 158 South BroadMountain Avenue where his brotherGeorge, still resides. In 1928he livednext door to my family on ~uthRailroad Avenue and he and his wiferemember me as a cute chubby baby!He attended the Frackville Schools andgraduated in 1920.I have the Yearbookof that class and it mentions that Roywas a very quiet boy in school and hadthe least to say and also was the .onewhohad the least to do with the girls. Infact, in the "Can You Imagine"column, they listed, "Can you imagineRoy Thomas flirting?"

His,first job after graduating schoolwas on farms owned by Joseph White'and the Malone family. He was a mailcarrier for two years and worked forthe Frackville Lumber Company. He,was a clerk at the Natalie Store when hewas 17 years old. Employees wentaround to the homes of customers totake orders and it was his job to fillthese orders. He recalled one un-pleasant task each Saturday-gettingsaited mackerel from the brine,cleaning it and filling the platters forthe store. Everyone in town hadmackeralfor Sunday morning in theold days but not Roy-he hatedmackerel and he hated the unpleasanttask of getting it ready for the store!!John Witter was the manager of theNatalie and Earl Bowe was assistantmanager. Peg Purcell, Agnes Murphy,'and Dorothy Burns were office clerksand Florence Murphy was a counterclerk at this time.

Marne Phillips' Grocery Store at 101South Broad Mountain i\venue was theonly grocery store on the east side oftown in the early days. Mr. Thomas'parents did all their grocery shoppingthere. He also remembered SteveMiddleton's grocery store on LehighAvenue where the Hoffman Gas Stationis now located.

He was a barber's apprentice to JackRichardson on South Lehigh Avenuefrom 1917to 1920. On September 12,\1925,Mr. Thomas set up his own barbershop in the building that was formerly'built by William Roeder whooperated ashoe store. This was located behindwhat is nowMiles Flower Shop.Fred H.Eiche had a wall paper store here afterMr. Roeder retired. This building waslater moved to East Oak Street next tothe Goodwill Hose House. Mr. Roederlived at 108 South Middle Street andowned the property up to the corner onEast Oak Street. The Frackville Bor-ough bought this corner lot from Mr.Roeder on which to build the Good WillFire House. This building still standsand is used as an Ice Cream Parlor onthe first floor with meeting rooms onthe second floor. After Mr. Eicheretired from business Mr. Thomasrented the building from 1925to 1972

, when it was torn down.He reminisced about his barber shop

and said it was first heated by a potbelly stove. His was a fancy stove withnickel and chrome trimming-the typeused in many parlors 'at that time. Inlater years a heatrola was the source ofheat used. WhenRoy learned the trade,

the price of a haircut for a child or adultwas fifteen cents and a shave was ten'cents. That's where the expression,"Shave and a haircut-two bits"originated! In 1925, the first year ofRoy's business, the price was thirty-five cents for a haircut and fifteen centsfor a shave. -Tipping was unheard ofback in the old days and barbers made,a living but it was not a lucrativebusiness. At the end of the schoolyear-the beginning of summer-all youngboys got all their hair cut off-completely bald-for the summermonths.

Hand clippers were used in the earlydays and when electric clippers wereinvented many adults would not allowtheir barber to use these while cuttingtheir hair because they were afraid ofgetting electrocuted. It took a long timebefore people accepted the electricclipper! Many people would not allow abarber to use a hand clipper because ifhe did not work the hand clippersproperly they'd pull and the barber hadto cut their hair with a scissors andcomb. In fact, he said, "it's certainlycoming back to tha t today with the newheavier styles many haircuts are doneonly with scissors and comb." Therewere no hair styles years ago-ehaircutsWere more or less clipping hair off-men didn't fuss as they do today-"takeoff as much as you can" was the usualgreeting as they sat down in the .bar-ber's chair. \

There were no barber schools yearsago and anyone who felt they could cut'hair and shave could be ail apprenticeand eventually open his own barbershop. The prerequisite of a good barberwas not how he could cut hair but howhe could shave ! There were twostandard shave lotions used-switchhazel, a mild face lotion which did notsting too much and bay rum, a verynippy lotion, for the tough fellows whocould take it. Lilac lotion was used forthe gentleman trying to make an im-pression on his girl!

Barbers had to hone their own razorsin the old days and a straight razor wasused. After World War I Almostevery man got shaved in a bar-ber shop! Business men, got shavedevery day, others every second day ortwice a week, Wednesdays an.c\Saturdays. These two days were knownas "shave days" and no one dared askfor a haircut on these days! Mr.Thomas opened his shop at seven eachmorning and stayed until the lastcustomer was finished-there were noclosing hours in a barber shop. Hestayed open on Saturday until midnightbut after closing the door he often hadcustomers waiting and stayed two morehours. Everyone wanted to be cleanshaven for Sunday and the day before aholiday, as Christmas and Easter, abarber might work from seven onemorning until four or five the -nextmorning -.

The barber shop of years ago was aplace to loaf as well as a place to get a·haircut or a shave. The barber shopwas always filled with men chatting.about the dav's events and keeping upwith the news. A favorite magazine,"Police Gazette," a sort of gossippaper, was well used by his customers.Large calendars were given out bymany businesses and these covered thewalls of his shop. The word "next" wasused quite often in Roy's 47 years ofbarbering! As he finished each man hesaid, "next" and the customer next inline would occupy the barber chair!

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About 1919,the men of town, many ofthem veterans of World War I were'

, introduced to the first safety razor andmany of them shaved themselves oc-casionally, but when women startedgetting their hair cut at the barbers(there were no beauty shops then) themen got disgusted waiting for their turnat the barber's chair so they startedshaving themselves-and that was thebeginning of the end of shaving in thebarber shops! Many barber shopstoday will only give a shave with anelectric razor but there are a few oldtimers whostill will givea shave with astraight razor and Roy is one of them.

He gave women a "boyish rob"haircut-the style of the day-a taperedback with long sides and boys and girlsalike, got the "dutch cut "--straightaround the back and bangs! He gavesuckers and candy as a treat to thekiddies for sitting still in the chair.

All barbers had an apprentice yearsago. They were essential becausebarbers did so much shaving. His firstshop had three chairs and the ap-prentice lathered the customer, thebarber shaved him and then the ap-prentice finished with lotion or powderand set up the next customer. The.apprentice was not paid for this work-it was part of a training period-but atChristmas time a wooden chalk boxwas placed in the shop with a slot at thetop with "Remember the Apprentice"written on the side and he received afew dollars from the customers.Apprentices were at least twelve yearsold and served a four year period. JohnKonopka, and brothers, Earl and JackThomas were apprentices under Roy.

Each man had his own shaving mugwith either his name imprinted on it orsome emblem or insignia of anorganization he may have belonged to.If he changed barbers it was the job ofthe apprentice to go to the former

- barber and request the mug of the newcustomer! Roy found that job to be verydistasteful!

Aspecial close friend of Mr. Thoma"was Dr. William Dougherty. The doctorvisited the shop every day whether it

was for a a hair cut, a shave or just tosit around to talk with the boys. He wasan ardent baseball fan and also lovedboxing but could never pick a winner!Whenever a fight was corning up he'dtell you why a certain boxer had to win,but that fellow always lost! The doctoris remembered to have said, "I nevervoted for a winning president." He hadbeen a Democrat all his life and haddecided to get on the bandwagon andregister Republican-that was the yearFranklin Delano Roosevelt won the

'presidency-on the Democrat ballot!!

He still batted a thousand! Dr.Dougherty was a barber in his youngerdays. He apprenticed under ThomasBradley and through this he- paid hisway. through college by barbering--cutting the students hair at school!

Mr. Thomas is married to the formerHelen Rae James and they have twochildren. Mrs. Ruth Abugelis ofLevittown who has two children, Rev.Thomas Abugelis of Milford,Massachusetts and Carol in high'school. Mrs. Helen Thomas of WillowGrove has two children, Paul and Debiat home.

Mr. Thomas, at the age of 72, stillbarbers at his barber shop at 31 SouthWylam Street. He has a remarkablememory and it was wonderful visitingwith that old neighbor of mine!