To the Editor,
Shave and a Haircut: “Two Bits” Celebrating Black History in Mattapoisett – What’s to celebrate? Not a great deal in our town history. But as Mattapoisett resident Jessica DeCicco-Carey makes clear in her 2021 Crow’s Nest article “The Barber of Church Street,” Black man, Abraham Skidmore, created a place here for himself and his wife from 1899 to 1954 and did us proud. Skid, as he was called, was the town’s barber, band organizer, parade marshal, newspaper carriers’ friend and a person ready with a helping hand when the need arose.
Jessica DeCicco-Carey’s article tells the Skidmores’ story and tells it well. “Skid,” as nearly everyone called him, was born in Oxford, North Carolina in 1878. He had enough schooling and the gumption to leave the Jim Crow South and head north. After a brief period in New Jersey, he moved on to New Bedford where he trained to be a barber. Not long afterward, he read that the barbershop at Mattapoisett’s old Purrington Hall on Water Street was for sale. He packed his belongings into a trunk, took the train to Mattapoisett and purchased the shop. Soon afterward, he opened his “First-Class Tonsorial Parlor” offering “Ladies’ and Children’s Hair Cutting Done In Bangs and All Styles.” The last line of his half-page ad in the 1903-1904 “Resident and Business Directory of Rochester, Wareham, Marion and Mattapoisett” added “Shaving, Shampooing and Men’s Hair Cutting a Specialty. Razors Honed.”
According to its Wikipedia history, the universally popular call and response couplet “Shave and a Haircut, Two bits” originated in 1899, the year Skidmore opened his shop where two bits, slang for a quarter, would get you a shave and a haircut. And he kept his rates low. DeCicco-Carey’s article quotes him as saying: “Most barbers charge a dollar, but I could never do that.”
As time went on, he moved his shop to the Abbe & Griffin Store, next to the Shaw and Barrows Store and then on to its current site on Church Street where Jodi Bauer carries on the business to this day. She treats the premises as an informal working memorial to Skid and to his friend Al Morgado who kept the business going after Skid died. Bauer acquired it from Morgado when he retired.
Over the course of his career, Skidmore became a town institution. DeCicco-Carey’s account tells the story. He married Anna Calhoun, a servant at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I.in 1903. The Skidmores settled on Pine Island Road. With no children of his own, Skidmore welcomed town kids into his shop where they could hang out until the Standard Times dropped off the day’s edition for them to deliver. And he assumed the role of parade master for the Fourth of July’s annual children’s march through town.
This Black History Month it would be appropriate if we could add more to the account of this early Black Citizen. Did he own an automobile? Was his shop an informal gathering place for socializing? Could Skid and Anna be seated in the main dining room at the Anchorage by the Sea or at the town’s other restaurants? A heart wrenching fact reported by DeCicco-Carey is that only six people showed up for Skidmore’s funeral after he died at age 76 in 1954. The lack of collective grief at the loss of the town’s marching barber, its singular Black personality, prompts one to ask how seriously the town took Skidmore in his day. While we may never know, it seems appropriate to pay our respects to Abraham and Anna Skidmore during this Black History Month.
David R. Anderson
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