MR. GASKIN: Roger Eimer of Bradford remembers well the black
barber in Smethport we wrote about in recent columns; His father
was a barber in his shop for several years.

As a child, Roger would visit the shop operated by Elwood Orlo
Gaskin and his father Chester “Chet” Eimer. “I’d never seen a black
person until that time,” Roger says. He and Mr. Gaskin’s grandson
were about the same age and played together.

The partnership lasted from 1946 until the 1950s when Mr. Gaskin
became ill and the family moved to Baltimore, Md.

“My dad would go up to the house once a week and he’d get paid,
sometimes in silver dollars.”

Their shop was located on West Main Street. After Mr. Gaskin
left Smethport, his father moved his shop to Fulton Street where he
worked until his death in 1971. 

Roger was born in Coudersport in 1946 but moved to Smethport as
an infant. The family had an apartment in town until his dad built
a home on Farmers Valley Road.

As a child, he’d gather up $4-$5 and go to town. At McCoy’s, he
stocked up on comic books, pop and candy — each selling for 10
cents apiece. He’d then hit the barber shop, read his comic books
and leave them for the next kid.

His father would give a dime to each child who got a haircut,
Roger remembers.

It was not all sweetness and roses, though. Once, a customer
informed Mr. Gaskin that his service would no longer to necessary —
since a white man was now available to cut his hair. He used a
racial epithet in addressing Mr. Gaskin. One time, Roger’s aunt
used the same word.

“I never want to hear that word again,” Mr. Eimer told the
aunt.

Mr. Eimer developed his progressive racial attitudes during the
Depression when he worked alongside blacks as a migrant worker.
Roger recalls one of his dad’s stories: On a hot day in the field,
he had asked a co-worker, “Don’t they bring water?” No, a black
worker advised. If you’re thirsty eat some of the crop — tomatoes.
It did the trick.

Roger tells us that, in the 1950s, Coudersport, which was quite
agricultural at the time, had a migrant camp and most of the
workers were black.