Remembering a friendly barber


By Laurent J. d’Entremont



His barbershop was exactly 300 yards from our front door, but Stillman was much more than a barber, he was also a farmer, part-time taxi driver, buyer of lobster plugs and the first man in the village to own a tractor.



Once a month on a Saturday morning we had to visit the barber. The inside of the barbershop had the smell of soap and powders, shaving lotion and the welcoming aroma of pinewood drying near the stove. Stillman bought lobster plugs, and some of the loafers who came to the barbershop would whittle the plugs just to pass the time.



The walls had big calendars, or just plain photos, of wildlife scenes, one was a beautiful picture of a doe in springtime with her two fawns; there was an advertisement for a soft drink which read “you like it - it likes you”, a little oil-fired stove was located near the center of the shop for heating, the barber chair and wide mirror were in the east end of the one room building, and a long wooden bench seat was along the entire length of the south wall.



On the north wall there was a counter with a glass showcase where Rosa, Stillman’s wife, sold candies, chocolate bars, soft drinks, etc. Everybody knew Stillman, who was a lovable person with gracious manners and a winning personality. Because of this, people would call Stillman Mr. Smiles. The name stuck and forever after he would be known by the affectionate moniker Smiles.



It was always a thrill to sit in the barber chair on a quiet Saturday morning. Stillman entertained our young ears with stories of his younger days working “Across” (in the United States). He had worked making jewelry boxes and also in a factory assembling adjustable wrenches. This was piecework and Stillman, who was very enterprising, was so involved in his work that one day all the others workers had gone home and locked the building before he noticed it was quitting time. The night watchman had to let him out. 



This barber was also a potato farmer. In 1948 he bought a brand new Ford farm tractor from Trefry’s Garage in Yarmouth, for the sum of $1,200. He managed to locate ‘modern’ equipment for the tractor. There was the potato planter and later a sprayer was installed to spray the potato stalks against bugs and diseases. When it came time for crop harvesting in October, the potato digger did the job. There was also the grader, the cut-off saw (for firewood), a snowplow and a thresher.



Even though Stillman and Rosa never had children of their own, they probably did more to entertain young people than anybody else in the village. In his busy life of barber/farmer, Stillman still managed to find time to make a skating rink out of an old swamp located behind the barbershop. He toiled many days during summertime with his tractor and a mud scoop; the rocks and big stumps had to be blasted with dynamite. The method with dynamiting was to make a small hole under a rock, insert one or two sticks of dynamite with a long fuse, cover the hole with mud and branches, light the fuse and run for your life. 



One time he had covered his ‘mud shot’ with burlap bags and his old overcoat. As soon as the blast was heard, neighbors ran to their windows just in time to see his overcoat descending from the clouds. Some people thought for a moment that Stillman, who was a piano and fiddle player, had suddenly taken up the harp as well, but he was safe and sound and as summer turned into fall and winter, the pond filled with water and froze over. It was a first class skating rink. To cover expenses, 10 cents was collected from each person and you could skate to your heart’s content for that amount.

Once in a while, Stillman would go on the ice with his tractor and get bogged down. Trucks from the local fish plant would always tow him to solid ground.



Stillman operated the barbershop for 40 years, retiring in 1975, past retirement age. He remained active a few more years, going on drives with Rosa and puttering around the house.

Eventually the tractor that had served its time well for over a quarter of a century was worn out and was sold. The barbershop was also sold and moved away. When those two items left the farm a part of Stillman’s life went with them. He died in 1982 at 78 years. Rosa died a few years later.

Many from that era still have great memories of Stillman’s skating pond and his many escapades.


laudent@hotmail.com