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Moore runs good ole’ barbershop
By Bonnie Helwig
Battalion Reporter
Every smali town has its
storyteller.
Howard Moore, 81, has been
telling stories in the same barber
shop, behind the same barber
chair for 52 years in the West
Texas community of Miles, lo
cated near San Angelo.
A step into his barber shop is a
step into the 1920s. The clock on
the wall has been there since
1921 and still keeps perfect time.
“These barber chairs have
been here ever since I have,
along with nearly all the other fur
nishings,” he said. “The shower
and bath for the cowboys are still
in the back, too.”
A ceiling fan hangs from the
center of the room, although the
doors of the shop are open wide
during warm weather.
His shop is usually filled with
the "old timers” of Miles, and the
stories can go on forever, he
says.
“One day, a stranger came in
here for a haircut while me and
one of the boys was having an
argument oyer some story,”
Moore said. “After I had finished
giving the fellow a haircut and
shave, he said he wasn’t leaving
until he knew who was going to
win the argument.
“I told the stranger that if he
would come back in five years, he
would probably find us still argu
ing over the same old stories.”
Known to everyone as Efe
(pronounced eef), a nickname
given to him by an older brother,
he quickly drifts back to the 1920s
when business was best.
Moore pointed to the wall lined
with empty chairs.
“Fellows used to line up in here
every Saturday for a shave and a
bath for two bits,” he said. “Many
a time I’ve worked from 6 a.m.
until midnight on a Saturday.
That’s 18 hours, but I was
younge r an d the haircuts took
less time back then, too."
Moore said the barber shop
was not only a place to get a hair
cut, but also a courtroom and
wedding chapel when needed.
“The justice of the peace in
Miles was also a barber and
worked tight at this next chair for
30 years/ Moore said. “Why, we
used t° court right behind
the cash register whenever the
highway patrol brought some
body »h- would leave custom
ers sitting in the chair half-shaven
while w® d all stop working to hold
court. , ^ j
"I |<now we ve had six or eight
wedding 5 in here. People would
come in and want to get married,
so we’d stand them over in the
cornet, marry’em and send them
on theit way.
/yjoote had a smirk on his face
when he recalled the prohibition
days when bootleggers used the
barber shop as their place of
busines 5 -
“The rnost shameful thing that
ever happened here was on
Christm 35 Ev e,” he said. “All the
custom ers we te sitting around
aetting drunk and ,he y’d offer us
a drink before they got on the
chair f° r a haircut. Of course,
we’d take one, and by the middle
of the afternoon, all four of us
barbers were drunk.
-One of the barbers was so
drunk
that he couldn’t stand up,
HOWARD MOORE, who is 81 years old, sits in the barber doesn’t like the long hair or hair styling these days, and will
chair he has used to cut hair for the last 52 years. He says he give a simple haircut for $2.
so he and some of the customers
moved the chair back to he could
sit on the lavoratory and keep cut
ting hair. I had a hard time getting
home that night, and I’ve never
been drunk since,” he said.
Through the years, Moore has
cut women’s hair as well as
men’s, but prefers his male cus
tomers.
“Women are just too particu
lar," he said. “I gave this one lady
a mirror to check her hair after I
had finished cutting it and she
complained that it didn’t look right
in the back.
“I thought it looked fine, so I
decided to pull a little trick on
her,” he said with a sheepish grin.
“First, I turned her away from the
mirror so she couldn’t see what I
was doing. Then, I held the sci
ssors about four inches away
from her head and went ‘snip.
snip, snip’ so she would think I
was cutting it some more. She
said it looked so much better after
I had finished, and I hadn’t
changed a thing."
Although Moore is not as busy
as he used to be, he has no plans
to retire.
“The last antique dealer that
was through here wanted to buy
that dock, the lavoratories, the
chairs and cash register,” Moore
said. “I told him I needed all that
stuff. I’m not ready to quit yet.”
Moore said he doesn’t give the
popular layered haircuts and has
no use for a blowdryer.
“This business of (hair) styling
is beyond me,” he said. “I just
don’t see how these women can
stand that long hair on men these
days. I give old-fashioned, old-
timey haircuts to anyone who
wants one for two dollars.”