Barber

So you continued into your twenties and up until the [Great] Depression, you continued in barbering, right?$$Oh, yes. I continued barbering. And the thing of it is, I stayed--after I--let me think. After, after--oh, I went into the [U.S. military] service. I bought the shop from the Challengers Club, and I stayed in business from 1934 to 1942.$$And whose shop did you buy?$$From the Challengers Club, the businessmen club. See, they bought the shop from Mr. Grey [ph.]. You asked me about Mr. Grey.$$Yeah, um-hm.$$Mr. Grey had three shops.$$Yeah.$$And he had one in Dartmouth Street, then he had two on Tremont Street [Boston, Massachusetts]. And Mr. Holloway [ph.] had one and Mr. Poole [ph.] had one. But Mr. Poole committed suicide on the shop which is between--in the 900 block just, just before--it's between--well, it's, it's--well, between Shag Taylor's drugstore [Lincoln Pharmacy] and Hammond Street. Shag Taylor had a very famous store, liquor and pharmacy, on the corner of Kendall [Street] and Tremont Street. Well, well, his--well, anyway, Mr. Poole committed suicide and that--so they did away with that shop, and he came back into--what he did, he gave up his shop on Dartmouth Street which was being--oh, well, he was losing business, 'cause it, it--the area was just--gentrification was taking over, and his customers went--even though he had all the railroad men, the people, Pullman porters and all that as customers, Red Caps, the trade was dwindling, so he brought 'em back into the lower Roxbury [Boston, Massachusetts], and he set up a shop at 912 Tremont Street; that's where I first started working for him. He had put his (unclear) shop there. Mr. Grey was a very distinguished looking man. He was a mulatto, short, and had a very booming voice. And so he was quite a person. He belonged to the sportsman's club, and he was quite, you know, a person among--and as a socialite. And he was from Petersburg, Virginia, also by the way. That's how I happened to get in with him, because my father [James Guilford, Sr.] was from Petersburg, and they knew one another. So Mr. Grey allowed me to come in there to work after school, and I was--by that time, I was sixteen years old. See, I was a--I was a really accomplished barber, because I'd been trained by Mr. [Robert] Gordon [ph.], then I left Mr. Gordon with a man by the name of George King [ph.] who came out of North Carolina. He was the one that was interested in me. And so he took a job in Everett [Massachusetts], and went to--we went--so he took a job--the shop was on Tileston [Street] and Main Street in Everett. And it was strictly a mixed business there, because Italians and the blacks all were mixed in together, so that's where I had a chance on learning how to cut all types of hair, straight hair, curly hair, any kind of hair, and worked on the both people, you know, white and black. And so by that time, I was--I used to go there after school, so by that time I was sixteen years old. But I didn't like it out there, because there wasn't enough activity for me, see, because any time you work in the neighborhood barbershop, you have to work--during the morning hours, nothing's happening. Then the business comes in when the people get from work and come in or those who are there during the day are just maybe students or something like that. But in Boston [Massachusetts] and Lower Roxbury [Boston, Massachusetts], you open your door, people are scrambling to get in, so I was used to that, see, from Mr. Gordon's shop where I learned and also--where Mr. Gordon--so I knew what was happening before I was in town. So I told my boss, "I don't want to stay out here," so he said, "Well, go see Mr. Grey." So I went into Mr. Grey, and Mr. Grey gave me a chair in his shop. But the thing of it is, he had the first chair as the barber, as the owner. So I told him, I said, he wanted to put me in the back. I said, "No, I'm not going in the back. If I get the back, no one will know I'm here," (laughter). So he gave me--$$How many chairs did he have?$$Huh?$$How many chairs did he have?$$He had six chairs.$$Six?$$Yeah.$$Wow.$$Yeah, and then the thing--the story--those, those--I remember how bad and how bad looking this--that shop is after what's happening today. They had the bare wood floors which they kept oiled. Then, they had a big old back--big old belly--black belly stove that they used for heating purposes. And, all the furniture was just white and black, you know, white showcases and black--white chairs, big old white chairs with--but, so they had six of 'em. And, then--but they were lined up against the wall, but he had a huge window on the left. As you come in the door, it's--they--you'd be facing the barber chairs, but on the left was the window--the window which faced the street, and he had the first chair facing the street. So I told him, I said, "I'll come there and work if you give me the first chair," (laughter). He gave me the first chair. So I became an attraction, a young fellow, sixteen years old, working on the first chair in a barbershop. And I had all my schoolmates and everybody, girls and fellows would come in, and I'd cut their hair, and I was a very good barber, so I'd been taught, see (simultaneous)?$$(Simultaneous) Wow.$I became president of the Associated Master Barbers and Beauticians of Massachusetts [Associated Master Barbers of Massachusetts] in 1962.$$Now how long were you president?$$One year.$$One year, oh.$$Because I was supposed to go for two years but something happened; I'll tell you about that. But anyway (laughter), they--coming to the convention--$$How did--well, let me say, how did you get elected? People voted?$$No, they, they had delegates at the--at the national convention--$$And they--$$You had a--we'd have a state convention with the Association of Master Barbers [sic. Associated Master Barbers of America; Hair International], so I was the delegate for my chapter and--myself and Malik [ph.] who was a--who had a barbershop [Beau Nubian Brummel Tonsorial Emporium, Boston, Massachusetts]. His name was Reginald Johnson [Jr.] at the time. He became a Muslim and his name changed to Malik Kaluk [ph.], you know who I'm talking about, he had the (unclear) business.$$Yeah.$$So anyway, he and I were delegates and so they didn't want to put me on the ticket, because they said, "Well, if he gets elected to be fourth vice president, someday, he's gonna be president." So the fella by the name of Joe Barone [ph.] didn't want me to get on the ticket, because he was supposed to be a shoe-in, see? So--but there was another fellow by the name of-I don't have his name, just--he had a barbershop on Prospect Street in Cambridge [Massachusetts]. And he--I can't remember--I have his name in my book, but he was also a candidate. So we gave our votes to him. As a result, he won the election as president, and I got on the ticket as vice president. And so, anyway, Joe Barone, even though he got defeated over the years on account of what we did, we still became very good friends, but that was what happened. And so then--and, of course, what happened, everybody that stayed president, stayed in for a term of two years. So after two years went by on each election, I eventually became president.$$And what were your responsibilities as the president?$$Well, I'd oversee the--all the meetings and, and handle, you know, as a president, we--I'd shared all the public meetings, and then I visited all the various chapters, 'cause they'd have meetings or, or--$$Across the state?$$Oh, yeah, all the--they had chapters in all the cities, like Springfield [Massachusetts] had a chapter, Quincy [Massachusetts] had a chapter, you know?$$I see.$$Cambridge had a chapter. And then I'd visit all this--as the president, I'd visit all the--Lowell [Massachusetts] had a chapter. 'Cause Lowell was an incident, what really messed me up, because I went to Lowell to represent them at a convention they was having. They invited the--so they had all the people there for this assembly. And so, when I went there, they told me to sit on the floor with the president of the union. Well, the union and I are two different people. I'm--this chapter--I'm the president of the chapter that's giving the affair, so the master of ceremony was a national organizer, and I can't call his name right now, but anyway, he was a national organizer. So he, in turn, told me to sit on the floor with the president. So I said, "I'm not sitting on the floor." I said, "I'm gonna sit up there on the--on the--on the--on the roster [sic. rostrum], up on the platform with the rest of the officers of the chapter. I'm the president." So they had their wives and the only officers up there on the platform. Yet, I'm the president of the association on a national--on a state level, and I'm sitting on the floor, so I got up and walked away. I walk--I left. So when I left, they got--all got upset. So when I came back to the regular meetings for the election of the--of being reelected, they said, "You ain't gonna get elected [HistoryMaker] Mr. [James] Guilford," (laughter). I said, "So what?" It didn't bother me. But they didn't like me. They had a caucus in the hotel where they had the neighbor--had this bar set up, and they're telling everybody, "Don't vote for Mr. Guilford, don't vote for Guilford," so that's how I got defeated, so I only did one term. I missed out on my other, other term.$$I see.$$But they made a--they regretted it--$$Yeah.$$--afterwards. They apologized afterwards. That was something that they did.