Page:Brunswick 100 Years of Memories.pdf/102
L
where he worked first at the YMCA with an old fellow named Albert Johnson and again with Mr. Porter. While working at the "Y" during the 1936 flood, he returned from lunch to find water across the tracks ~nd in the basement of the building, forcing the barber shop to close. After Bill joined the B&O Police Department , he furnished a barbershop in the basement of his home, cutting on Wednesday s and Thursdays by appointment. The cost of his services could make one wish for the good old days: 25 cents for a haircut and 15 cents for a shave. A barber working for an owner received about 70 per cent of receipts, with the owner collecting 32 per cent plus cost of materials. A hired barber bought his own tools. If lucky, he earned $7 to $10 a week. The barbers were not without their recreation. At 11 PM Saturdays, when stores closed, shopkeepers came to the barber shops for shampoos, mass.sages - the works. What went on after that in the back room of the barber shop? Bill Cage said they didn't talk much about that. While Bill did not participate in the games, he indicated that sometimes the seven to ten dollars grew, and sometimes it shrank- and that process might go on through Saturday night and all day Sunday. Atone time there were 13 barbershops in Brunswick, and while one could make a living, the competition was great. One really needed good Saturdays to make any money at all. If Bill Cage and Charlie Porter found themselves not busy and sitting around idle, they would bring in boys from the street and cut their hair. Some Sundays they went to hospitals to cut hair, and also made calls at the homes of the sick. Many remember that Charlie always had a window full of relics that attracted the attention of passersby. Even today, Bill Cage has an old barber chair in his summer residence in Mount Airy. He still has his original dippers and dust brush and cuts his son's and his grandson's hair. S - Bill Cage W-MMM
BEAUTICIANS No evidence of beauticians in the town's first 30 years was found. Someone remembers a beautician named "Red" Davis, who operated a shop down town, but before that, presumably each woman took care of her own coiffure. When Mildred Zecher (later Dean) opened
103
Cinderella Beauty Shop in 1936, the only two beauty shops in town were operated by Cora Mobley (later Gross), west of Kaplan's Store, and Richard Magalis. He first operated a barber shop that later developed into a beauty shop. This was in the Harry Funk house, now Deneen's, at 13 "A" Street. Magalis did not operate full time. Della Mae Humes operated a shop at 2 South Maryland Avenue, where Kitty Shaff worked and later bought the business. Frannie New joined Kitty and shortly took over the shop. After her marriage to Carl New, Frannie relocated at their home at 114 "A" Street, where she remained until her death in 1976. Margo Cannon Smith conducted her hair-coiffing business for ten years in the former Schnauffer Hospital Building. Ivan Huffer worked for Frannie New long enough to qualify for managing his own shop, which he opened in the Meadows building in 1946, where he remained for over a year. Later he opened a shop in his home at 9 South Maryland Avenue where he operated for 21 years. Since 1969 he has had a shop in his lovely Victorian home at 102 "A" Street. Snookie Hagan operated in the first block of West Potomac Street until she returned to Lovettsville. Local beauty parlors today are Carol's Cut & Curl, Classic Hair Design, Donna's House of Hair, Hair Express, Ivan's, and Shear Reflections. These all offer men's and women's styling, not just hair cutting. S - Mildred Dean
- Ivan Huffer W-MMM
BENCHMARK PRINTIN G, INC. Ellis Burruss founded Benchmark Printing in 1980 and began operating at 310 Souder Road with one press. The company has thrived over the past eleven years by maintaining a basic business philosophy of providing reasonable quality at the lowest possible price. Rather than trying to sell costly extras that are not needed, the company has always tried to show the customer how a printing job can be done that will satisfy their needs and still keep costs down. Although the original intent was for the business to be a one-person operation, success made additional help necessary by 1986. The Brunswick Office Supply Store and Copy Outlet - BOSS & CO., was started in 1986 as an expansion for Bench-