Good morning. Again, many thanks on the compliments on this series. If there is something you'd like to see information about, please write me privately and if I can find information, I'll try to include it for you. Sandi TIP# 165 - GRANDPA WAS A BARBER OR WIGMAKER AND GRANDPA WAS A BAKER The town barber also wore many hats. He shaved the gents' faces and the heads when wigs were in fashion. He normally worked with a youthful apprentice who was learning the trade. The normal man in the earlier days believed in shaving once a week. Wigs were not all that popular in Kentucky outside of the larger communities, but there were those who held to this old English custom. In most pictures you will note that the wigs are white. This was not always the case. Those that could afford them used human hair wigs and left it in the donor's color. Some of the old terms for the wigs were: Perruques: These were large wigs that appeared in the early 1700's. They were high on top near the front and fell into long curls that could be as long as to touch the shoulder. One who wore these wigs was the gent who would be seen in fancy silk stockings and breeches - the upper crust so to say. Ramillies: These were short tailed wigs. They are the ones who would have a bow made out of fine ribbon near the shoulder. Wigs were expensive and it cost more to keep them in presentable fashion. Barbers could be paid up to $400 a year to keep a wig looking stylish. Hmmm … and men complain of the costs of women's hair-dos today? To clean a wig or "dress" it consisted on cleaning, combing, curling on heating cylinders, powdering or tinting. The barber had to be sure the wig fit on the head of the purchaser too and this was a lengthy process. The hair for the wig was cleaned, combed with a hackle, held by the roots in a vise. He had to knot the ends into triple strands. In the larger cities, there sprang up barbers just for the women folk, but in smaller towns, the barbers "made curls" for the wives of their patrons. Even women went through the wig stage in the late 1760's, but were pretty much passe by the 1780's. GRANDPA WAS A BAKER: Fortunate was the town that had a real bakery! Grandma did most of the baking, but in the larger communities, bakers thrived. They obtained their raw materials from the miller - "tolled" flour. The baker had to sift the flour in a wooden trough and he started mixing the dough. Just like it is done today by our energetic housewives, then followed a lot of kneading, punching down, rising, etc. If the baker was fortunate enough to have apprentices (and most did) one of their jobs was to close the lid on the trough during the rising process - the lids were heavy. After the dough had risen for the last time, the apprentices cut large chunks, weighed them and put them on a floured table and then shaped them into loaves. After they had a table full, the loaves were covered and left to rise again. The baker had a large brick oven which generated much heat! It is said that the baker and his apprentices worked in as few clothes as was permissible! Everyone wore close fitting caps to keep the flour dust out of their hair and their hair out of the flour! When the oven was at the right temperature, the baker had to rake the coals, sweep out the ashes and slid the loaves on a "peel" - a flat shovel. The loaves went in without the use of pans. The door of the oven was closed and the remaining heat baked the bread. Some bakers worked in basements, and many time the bakers worked during the cool of night. He had to have the bread ready for his customers bright and early next morning. While one batch of bread was baking, he was preparing the dough for the next day. The apprentice made a mixture of yeast culture called the "barm" by mixing it into a thin paste of flour and mashed potatoes. The baker's wife and children all helped in the process to - it was they who many times sold to the customers. And the baker could be called upon to do something quite different from baking … if the barber needed assistance, he at times would curl hair for wigs! © Copyright 21 July 1998, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved, sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Sandi Gorin - A Proud Kentucky Colonel PUBLISHING: http://members.tripod.com/~GorinS/index.html BARREN CO WEBSITE: http://ww4.choice.net/~jimphp/barrenco/ PRAYER&PRAISE: http://www.listbot.com/subscribe/prayerandpraise