The Barber

I had seen this old cigar box many times among my mom's treasure trove. I knew it had belonged to one of her grandfathers, but I couldn't have told you which one. And I had never looked inside the box until she passed it on to me a few weeks ago. My ignorance of its significance was entirely out of character for me--since I'm compulsively nosey when it comes to other people's old stuff.

The contents of the cigar box are barber's tools. On the 1920 census in rural Missouri, her paternal Grandpa Chester's occupation was recorded as a barber. That occupation was uncharacteristic for this family, who were farmers as far back as I can trace them. Chester farmed in his later years, but he held on to these tools.

I am the next caretaker of them--along with a hundred other things from a hundred years ago.