Daddy never had a license to barber, so he could not legally charge for his work. Daddy never asked for any payment from any patron, but he would take small change offered from some who could afford it and perhaps a dime or so from those who could afford less. A quarter was about as much as he received from anyone at that time. In the later years of his life, some gave as much as a half dollar. Daddy always said he would rather cut a person’s hair for nothing, than see them looking shaggy. Daddy was generous with the many gifts life gave him. One day, Ruth Vawter asked him if he would cut her hair. Daddy had been cutting her husband Ray’s hair as well as her father in law’s hair. He was a bit reluctant at first, but finally agreed to cut her hair. She wore her hair in a short bob, so it was not far different than a man’s cut. Some time later, Ruth asked him about cutting her two daughters hair too. He agreed and soon by word of mouth stories of Daddy cutting women’s hair spread. He cut several heads of women’s hair after that. Of course he always cut Lila and my hair when we were growing up. Mama never cut her hair for many years. When we three kids married and had children he cut all of their hair too. I can remember vividly the day he told Lila and I that we needed to learn to barber because he would not always be around. In jest, I told him I would wait and learn to barber when he left. Little did I realize how soon I had to learn as well as Lila. One day, when Lila was cutting her son’s hair at the Caywood farm, she was having a hard time of it. All of a sudden she stopped cutting, looked up toward the ceiling while chuckling and said “Stop laughing daddy, it is not funny”. I broke out laughing too as I could envision our daddy finding it as funny as we did. Mama did not find the humor of the incident as we did. From then on, I cut all of our children’s hair. It was not a chore I enjoyed. With 12 children, I cut a lot of hair during the next few years. Wayne always asked me to cut his hair, but I refused most of the time. He was too anxious and squirmed too much. When Jim was in high school, he decided it was time for a store bought haircut and got one. He hated it, so it was back to mama’s job again. I was never the best barber, but got the job done and saved a lot of money. 
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Created December 20, 2020
Updated: 14 June, 2021
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