Smith Article, c1973 - McDowell Co. WV Newspaper Unknown An Era Ends Walter J. Smith Sr., who has been a barber in the Gary area since 1917, has finally hung up his shears. We suppose that brings to an end the longest barber “term” in this part of the country. Walter started as a licensed barber at the age of 16 in the Community Hall at Filbert. Not long afterwards he moved to the shop in the community building at Elbert, another Gary operation. “You could go there,” recalls Walter, “and find a lot of recreation while waiting for your haircut or afterwards. They had a silent movie, bowling alley, pool room, a restaurant and a dance hall in that building.” Walter’s longest time customer was Joe Barta of Big Four. Walter cut Joe’s hair for 56 years. The other is the Davis family of Welch. Smith started cutting Davis hair long, long ago, first for the great-grandfather of the present generation. “I have been their family barber for five generations.” he explained. He says this long hair fad annoyed him a bit, but not too much. “Some of these young people would come in and want a little off here, and a little off there, and you can’t cut hair like that. I’d just take a little off all the way around and let it go at that.” Joe, now 72, plans to take things easy and do a bit of work around the house and watch television, especially football. Submitted by Pam Ramoska **************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. ****************************************************************