By Joann M. Ringelstetter
In April, 2013, on our way to photograph for a week in Ohio, we stopped in the small town of Markleville, Indiana. Unfortunately, the vintage advertising sign we had hoped to capture was gone, but then I saw a big Coca Cola sign on a building down the street. So I walked down to it and discovered Sam’s Soda Fountain Café.
I set up my tripod across the street and took a picture of the café. And then a man in a red pickup truck pulled up and parked in front of the soda fountain. He got out of the truck and grabbed his guitar case from the back. I thought maybe there was going to be live music at the soda fountain that afternoon, but the man walked right past the soda fountain and entered the barber shop next door. I figured he was in need of a haircut before performing.
With the truck parked in front of the soda fountain building, I turned my attention to McKinley’s Barber Shop. It had an old-fashioned barber pole out front, which is a nice vintage item to find. As I snapped a photo of the barber pole, the owner of the barber shop, Richard McKinley, came out and started up a conversation. When I told him that I liked photographing old things, like the barber pole, he said, “Well, if you like old stuff, you have to come in here.”
I followed Richard into the barber shop and was immediately hit with the sound of old-fashioned country music. Over in the corner sat two older gentlemen, each with a guitar. A man sitting in a chair by the window of this very small barber shop whispered to me, “They do this every week.”
As I stood enjoying the music, Richard pointed out his antique barber chair from the 1940s. When I asked him if I could take a picture of it, he said, “Let me straighten it up first.” He folded the towel hanging off the side of it, straightened out the footrest, and then stepped aside to let me photograph it. I thanked him for his kindness. If you look closely, you will see him reflected in the mirror in the upper left corner of the photo below.
Then I turned back to the musicians, who were pickin’ and grinnin’ and having such a good time. I asked them their names and the man on the left said his name was Harold. After some good old-fashioned country humor, the man on the right said his name was Ray. I thanked them for the entertainment and then left this wonderful small-town barber shop.
Before heading back to the car, I decided to check out the soda fountain which, I discovered, had not officially opened yet. But the owner, Sam, was there working on getting it ready for the grand opening, so he let me look around inside. He was creating the look of a 1950s-era soda fountain and café. There was still a lot of work to do, but all the fountain glasses were on the shelf behind the semi-finished counter, along with a sign that said, “No spitting.”
After assuring Sam that I would do no spitting, I took a few photos of the glasses and wished him good luck with his soda fountain business. I left Markleville that day with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. Thanks, Markleville, for making my visit so enjoyable!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
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Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Showing posts with label barber shops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barber shops. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Sunday, October 23, 2011
A Barbershop Quartet
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
The most famous television barber was probably Floyd the Barber from The Andy Griffith Show. In the fictional town of Mayberry, Floyd’s Barber Shop was the gathering place where the men would read comics, play checkers, and discuss current events, along with getting a haircut.
On the old Hee Haw television show, Archie Campbell played the barber and he and his customer would often perform a skit called “That’s Good, That’s Bad.” Archie would tell the customer about something that had happened. If the customer said, “Oh, that’s good,” Archie would respond, “No, that’s bad” and then he would explain further. Then the customer would say, “Oh, that’s bad,” and Archie would respond with “No, that’s good!” Archie also told comical fairytales in “spoonerism” form to the people in the barber shop (switching the first letters of words for comic effect). His fairytales such as Beeping Sleauty and Rindercella were always our favorites.
The first barber shops that Joann and I noticed were on our trip to Northern Michigan in 2007. One was a small red building with old Coca Cola ads painted on the sides. The sign proclaimed it to be Mike’s Barber Shop but it was late in the day and the shop was closed.
The next day as we started our homeward trek, we found another small barber shop. This one was permanently closed, but was in a very unique little building. The sign above the door stated that it was the Colonial Barber Shop and this time there was a barber pole attached to the building.
Then in January of 2011, a small article appeared in the local paper that Barber Bill Groff was retiring and selling his one-chair barber shop after 38 years. Joann and I made a note that we should visit the shop before the signage was changed.
In early September we finally made a trip around Madison in the early morning hours and the signage was still there.
It’s a small shop in a residential neighborhood. The outside of the building had been changed from red to blue, but the name remained.
As we drive through towns, I am always on the lookout for barber poles. Many of the barber shops we find now don’t have the traditional pole out front.
Before 1950, there were four manufacturers of barber poles in the United States. By 2010, there was only one company still making barber poles. The company is the William Marvy Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. They have sold over 80,000 since 1950 when they began. They now sell only about 500 poles per year compared to over 5,000 per year in the 1960’s.
As you travel along the backroads and through small towns, look around for the small barber shops and see if you can spot a barber pole out front. They’re getting harder and harder to find.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
The most famous television barber was probably Floyd the Barber from The Andy Griffith Show. In the fictional town of Mayberry, Floyd’s Barber Shop was the gathering place where the men would read comics, play checkers, and discuss current events, along with getting a haircut.
On the old Hee Haw television show, Archie Campbell played the barber and he and his customer would often perform a skit called “That’s Good, That’s Bad.” Archie would tell the customer about something that had happened. If the customer said, “Oh, that’s good,” Archie would respond, “No, that’s bad” and then he would explain further. Then the customer would say, “Oh, that’s bad,” and Archie would respond with “No, that’s good!” Archie also told comical fairytales in “spoonerism” form to the people in the barber shop (switching the first letters of words for comic effect). His fairytales such as Beeping Sleauty and Rindercella were always our favorites.
The first barber shops that Joann and I noticed were on our trip to Northern Michigan in 2007. One was a small red building with old Coca Cola ads painted on the sides. The sign proclaimed it to be Mike’s Barber Shop but it was late in the day and the shop was closed.
The next day as we started our homeward trek, we found another small barber shop. This one was permanently closed, but was in a very unique little building. The sign above the door stated that it was the Colonial Barber Shop and this time there was a barber pole attached to the building.
Then in January of 2011, a small article appeared in the local paper that Barber Bill Groff was retiring and selling his one-chair barber shop after 38 years. Joann and I made a note that we should visit the shop before the signage was changed.
In early September we finally made a trip around Madison in the early morning hours and the signage was still there.
It’s a small shop in a residential neighborhood. The outside of the building had been changed from red to blue, but the name remained.
As we drive through towns, I am always on the lookout for barber poles. Many of the barber shops we find now don’t have the traditional pole out front.
Before 1950, there were four manufacturers of barber poles in the United States. By 2010, there was only one company still making barber poles. The company is the William Marvy Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. They have sold over 80,000 since 1950 when they began. They now sell only about 500 poles per year compared to over 5,000 per year in the 1960’s.
As you travel along the backroads and through small towns, look around for the small barber shops and see if you can spot a barber pole out front. They’re getting harder and harder to find.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
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